I know that between Chinese & Japanese, there’s vocabulary where the placement of each character differs but retains the same or related definition for the most part, like how 士兵 becomes 兵士 in Japanese, you get the drift. Technically something equivalent exists in Latin based languages such as Red Cross (EN) & Cruz Roja (ES).
| 日本語 | 中文 | ENG |
|---|---|---|
| 詐欺 | 欺詐 | Fraud |
| 苦痛 | 痛苦 | Pain |
| 脅威 | 威脅 | Threat |
| 講演 | 演講 | Lecture |
| 制限 | 限制 | Restriction |
There are also a few occasions in Japanese where both inversions are acceptable words, such as 理論 riron ‘theory’ and 論理 ronri ‘logic’, or 便利 benri ‘convenient’ and 利便 riben ‘convenient (but fancy-sounding)’.
先輩 and 輩先 both mean a senior (as in rank relative to you) in Japanese. It was the only example of that which my tired brain could muster at the moment.
It seems like they mean ‘ancestor’ and ‘senior’ in Chinese per Google Translate.
True, but I think that one’s a bit different, because 輩先 (usually written in katakana as パイセン) is a humorous slang term based off 先輩.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen パイセン written at all, come to think of it. It is slang, that much is true.