A.Word.A.Day --antimetabole

A.Word.A.Day

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Oct 27, 2014

This week's theme
Rhetorical devices

This week's words
antimetabole
zeugma
synecdoche
epanalepsis
hendiadys

Previous week’s theme
Words formed by metathesis (a transposition of sounds)

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Don't play with your food! All of us have heard that admonition as a child.

"Don't play with your language!" Imagine a utilitarian prehistoric cavemom chiding a child. "We use it for practical things, such as warning about a lion."

Of course, that's ridiculous. Language is to communicate: to share, alert, warn, scold, and much more. It's also to play, make jokes, and have fun.

In this week's AWAD we'll feature five words for rhetorical devices, to have fun with the language, to say things in an unusual way.

CONTEST: Can you come up with an original example of any of the words featured this week?

PRIZES: Winners will receive their choice of any of these prizes:
o A copy of the word game One Up!
o A signed copy of any of my books
o "AWAD to the wise is sufficient" T-shirt

HOW TO ENTER: You can enter as many times as you wish. Send your entries to (contest AT wordsmith.org) by Friday. Be sure to include your location (city/state/country). Results will be announced over the weekend.
See results

antimetabole

PRONUNCIATION:

(AN-ti-muh-TAB-uh-lee)

MEANING:

noun: A repetition of words or an idea in a reverse order.
Example: "To fail to plan is to plan to fail."

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek antimetabole, from anti- (opposite) + metabole (change), from meta- (after, along) + bole (a throw). Earliest documented use: 1589.

USAGE:

"Carl Sagan's antimetabole 'absence of evidence is not evidence of absence' immediately comes to mind."
Dieter Hartmann; A Multi-Messenger Story; Nature (London, UK); Jul 21, 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945)

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