I recently noticed that teammate is composed of two anagrams, and was wondering if anyone had any other examples of this, or even better, a name for this phenomenon?
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1'Teammate' is a compound word. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/compound_word– Nigel JJan 21, 2018 at 22:31
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Perhaps you should look up the word anagram.– LambieJan 21, 2018 at 22:43
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2I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it seeks a word that is vanishingly likely to exist, and a list of trivia.– Edwin AshworthJan 21, 2018 at 23:14
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@Edwin Ashworth: I don't feel "list of trivia" is an accurate description of what I want to know. It is likely to include a list, yes, but I'm intrigued to know if anyone has studied this as they have with other interesting ordering phenomena (e.g. anagrams more widely, palindromes, etc.)– MylesJan 21, 2018 at 23:40
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3@Edwin The likelihood of a whether a requested word exists or not is not a reasonable reason to close a question. List questions are of course off-topic (and I would suggest, Myles, that you edit the question to either make that part an aside or take it out altogether, and also to add in where you’ve looked already to try to find a term for the phenomenon you’re asking about), but asking for a name for the phenomenon is certainly not. The answer is most likely that there isn’t one, but that doesn’t make the question off-topic.– Janus Bahs JacquetJan 21, 2018 at 23:46
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1 Answer
"Teammate" is a compound word -- composed of two simpler words. "Team" and "mate" are coincidentally anagrams of each other, but there is no reason for this phenomenon to be "named", as it carries no significance, either in meaning or etymology.
There is probably a slight tendency for such anagram pairs to be joined into a compound word due to the increased likelihood they will have of being assonant with each other (making their use together more likely in idiomatic speech), but this is not what you would call a notable characteristic.
answered Jan 21, 2018 at 23:06
