antanametabole

Etymology

(RhetFig neologism, a blend of antanaclasis and antimetabole) Gk. anti “against, back” + ana “up” + metabole “turning about.”

Synonyms, partial synonyms, and alternate spellings

None

Definition

A 'repetition' of two or more homonyms in reverse order. Antanametaboles resemble ANTIMETABOLES but the same words are not repeated and reversed; rather, at least one of the 'repeated' and reversed words is a homonym or is a polyseme and the two instances are of different senses, or the two instances are in different lexical categories.

Example

Women don't want dates on their condoms; they want condoms on their dates. (Jay Leno, qtd in Hauptman 1994: 45)

Hauptman, Don. 2012. “Word-Order Spoonerisms: A Reply.” Word Ways 27 (1): 44–45.