Antimetabole

In rhetoric, antimetabole (/æntɪməˈtæbəliː/ AN-ti-mə-TAB-ə-lee) is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed order; for example, "I know what I like, and I like what I know". It is related to, and sometimes considered a special case of, chiasmus.

An antimetabole can be predictive, because it is easy to reverse the terms. It may trigger deeper reflection than merely stating one half of the line.^[1]

It is derived from the Greek ἀντιμεταβολή (antimetabolḗ), from ἀντί (antí, 'against, opposite') and μεταβολή (metabolḗ, 'turning about, change').

• "Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno" ("One for all, all for one")
• "Eat to live, do not live to eat." (Often attributed incorrectly to Socrates.)
• "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
• “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” (Often misattributed to Benjamin Franklin.)

• "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" — William Shakespeare, Macbeth^[2]
• "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." —Mark 2:27^[3]
• "All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime" — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray^[4]
• "He was just the man for such a place, and it was just the place for such a man." — Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass^[5]
• "Are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo? Or are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest?" — Suguru Geto, Jujutsu Kaisen
• "Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me" — Emily Dickinson, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
• "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent!" — Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg

• "The great object of [Hamlet's] life is defeated by continually resolving to do, yet doing nothing but resolve." — Samuel Taylor Coleridge on William Shakespeare's Hamlet^[6]

• "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." — John F. Kennedy, 1961 inaugural address
• "And we'll lead, not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example." — Joe Biden, 2021 inaugural address^[7]
• "There is no 'way to peace'. Peace is the way." — A. J. Muste

• "She's got everything it takes, to take everything you've got." — Loretta Lynn, "Everything It Takes"
• "With my mind on my money and my money on my mind." — Snoop Dogg, "Gin and Juice"
• "I'm hoping that somebody pray for me, I'm praying that somebody hope [sic] for me." — JID, "Enemy"
• "We run things, things don't run we [sic]" — Miley Cyrus, We Can't Stop

• "In America, you can always find a party. In Soviet Russia, Party always finds you!" — Yakov Smirnoff

• Anadiplosis
• Chiasmus
• Figure of speech
• In Soviet Russia
• Rhetoric
• Symploce

• Corbett, Edward P.J. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Oxford University Press, New York, 1971.

Look up antimetabole in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Audio examples of antimetabole at americanrhetoric.com
• Lapidos, Juliet (September 5, 2008). "The Hottest Rhetorical Device of Campaign '08". Slate.com. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
• Lapidos, Juliet (September 19, 2008). "The Old Switcheroo". On The Media. National Public Radio. Archived from the original on October 23, 2009. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
• Antimetabole detector at lingfil.uu.se