why are domain names reversely ordered?
jws: I think it comes down to history. Host names existed before domain names. When domains were bolted on they used the idea of a default domain for each host and that made sense to be on the end.Consider:  telnet hosta          # established way
  telnet hosta.abc      # domain bolted on back
  telnet abc.hosta      # domain bolted on front

Since people knew the host names and were used to dealing with them, the suffix was more natural since it kept the domain cruft out at the edge.