| antimetabole |
| Definition: A figure of speech where a word or a phrase in one clause or phrase is repeated in the opposite order in the next clause or phrase. |
| Example: When the tough get going, the going gets tough. |
| Etymology: The word derives from the Greek anti, in opposite direction, and metabole, turning about. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1589: "Antimetauole or the Counterchange … as thus. If Poesie be, as some haue said, A speaking picture to the eye: Then is a picture not denaid, To be a muet Poesie." (Puttenham Eng. Poesie 217) |