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A.Word.A.Day--yob

yob (yob) noun

Chiefly British. A rowdy, destructive youth; a hooligan or ruffian.

[Alteration of boy (spelled backward).]

(A word coined by spelling another word backwards. Another example of this type of word is mho, the unit of electrical conductance, coined by reversing ohm, the unit of resistance.)

"It is also beginning to lure a new kind of well-educated, well-scrubbed supporter, quite unlike the leather-jacketed, neo-Nazi yobs of its early days (though it continues to attract those too)."
France: Watch that Front; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 8, 1997.

This week's theme: Words with an unusual arrangement of letters

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