When responding to questions about multiple subjects, people will simply answer the questions in that order, adding 'respectively' to the end to make it clear which response applies to which subject. I think this is mostly when asking about two people / subjects, but I've heard three and four occasionally.
For example:
How old are Jason and Tommy?
They're 21 and 23, respectively.
However, what if you misspeak, and accidentally say them in the opposite order? Aside from simply correcting yourself, is there a word you can use that would work, while keeping the rest of the sentence the same? As in:
They're 23 and 21, [insert word here].
Best Answer
retrograde (ˈrɛtrəʊˌɡreɪd) adj
-2. (esp of order) reverse or inverse
ˈretroˌgradely adv
© HarperCollins Publishers -thefreedictionary.com
inversely, in·verse·ly, adverb \ˈin-ˌvərs-lē,
1: in an inverse order or manner
© 2014 Merriam-Webster
Exercises in word choice and use are fun but communication is only useful when understood by the recipient. Just start over and say: Jason is 21 and Tommy is 23. This uses less characters than either of my examples, leaves little room for misunderstanding and can easily be translated without error.
Any deviation from the expected idiomatic use of (respectively) is going to cause confusion. Rearrange your sentence to conform to this standard or continue to make my brain hurt unnecessarily.
If for some reason the data makes more sense backwards, at least begin the sentence with the (word) so I know how to arrange the data from its onset.
I assume until told otherwise that all data is in respective order, the word appears at the end of a sentence as a mere conformation.