Going Backward and Forward

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Matt Gaffney’s Contest Crossword #79, “Crazy X-Word,” finds a few common words and phrases that include four-letter alphabetical strings in reverse order. I have starred his examples below and added some more of my own. This is not a complete list, but it does include the concepts I found most familiar…

*PUTS RIGHT TO WORK
BOUTS-RIMES
CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE…
CUTS ROUND
*UPON MY WORD!
DON’T GIVE UP ON ME!
WEAR MY HEART UPON MY SLEEVE
WEAPON MASTER (or MAKER)
MLK JR
*TALK JIVE TO (I might not have remembered this one without Gaffney!)
LIPSTICK JIHAD
WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION (WWE, sadly, did not preserve this property)
*STUFFED CABBAGE (or CRUST)

Going forward, we get solid clusters in the CDEF, MNOP, and RSTU areas. Again, this is an extensive but incomplete samplin.

PUBLIC DEFENDERS
PLASTIC (or ELASTIC) DEFORMATION
GENETIC DEFECT
STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE
ZINC (OR VITAMIN C) DEFICIENCY
SECDEF
DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT
SPINNING CD EFFECT
FILM NOIR
BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
GYMNOPHOBIA
CREMNOPHOBIA
GYMNOPLAST
THAMNOPHILE
SOMNOPATHY
SOMNOPLASTY
LIMNOPHILOUS
LIMNOPHOBIA
LIMNOPLANKTON
SOMNOPHILIA
APOTEMNOPHILIA
GYMNOPEDIES
APOTEMNOPHOBIA
UNDERSTUDY
OVERSTUFFED
STAR-STUDDED
BURST UPON
OVERSTUDIOUS
DESIGNER STUBBLE
TRANSFER STUDENT
CLEAR STUFF
MADE OF STERNER STUFF
BIERSTUBE

CHARACTER STUDY
CROSSOVER STUDY
FIRST UP
LOWER’S TUBERCLE
STRUT YOUR STUFF
SUPERSTUD
DO YOUR STUFF
GENDER STUDIES
HAMMER STUNNING
KNOW YOUR STUFF
QUEER STUDIES
SHEAR STUD
COLLAR STUD
ECHO DOPPLER STUDIES
FIRST-YEAR STUDENT
FLEISCHER STUDIOS

And if a wraparound is permissible, then YZAB yields a few possibilities…ANALYZABLE, HYDROLYZABLE, ELECTROLYZABLE, PHOTOLYZABLE, DIALYZABLE, ANALYZABILITY. There’s also the notorious XYZ AFFAIR. We won’t count the few terms that are replicating alphabet strings on purpose.

With that in mind, is a five-letter string findable? Depends on how creative you’re willing to be. Nothing shows up in my online dictionaries, but Google’s autocomplete leads me to…

“ABC Democracy” (song by Raffi)
BC definition, deficit, defense
Basic DEF gas
Mos Def, “Ghetto Rock”
EF Ghia (luxury car)
Keep calm? No problem
Coin-op QR codes
Drop QRs
Burst uvula [ugh, sorry]
XYZ abbreviation
Crazy X-Word [wink]
Nunavut’s regions
An MLK Jr. speech
Talk jihad
Acting Fed chair
Huffed CBD
The DC Bar

And the list above suggests these strings of six and even seven…

Coin-op QRs
On MLK Jr. Drive
Upon MLK Jr. Day

A couple of common terms have both a forward four-string and a backward four-string…

Overstuffed couch
Overstuffed chair

And here’s three reasonable phrases with two forward four-strings.

Film noir studio
Film noir studies
Film noir stuff

Two backward four-strings is harder. The best I can do is a couple of more strained phrases:

Knifed cuts roughly
Stuffed cold cuts recipe

Have I left out something? Probably…but as an exploration, this seems like a good start!