Figure Name | hysteron proteron |
Source | Silva Rhetoricae (http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm); De Mille (1882); Holmes (1806) ("hysteron"); Bullinger (1898) ("hysteron-proteron; or, last-first"); Vickers (1989) ("hysteron proteron") |
Earliest Source | None |
Synonyms | praeposteratio, prepostera loquutio, preposterous, hysteron, hysteron-proteron, last-first |
Etymology | None |
Type | Trope |
Linguistic Domain |
Semantic |
Definition |
1. Disorder of time. (What should be first, isn't.) A kind of hyperbaton. (Silva Rhetoricae) 2. 195. HYSTERON PROTERON. 3. Hysteron doth misplace both words and sense, And makes the last what's first by just pretence. (Holmes) 4. The second of two things put First... A figure in which the word that should be the latter of two words comes first. It is, therefore, a kind of Hyperbaton: where 'the cart is put before the horse.' It occurs in most language; but it is a question whether in this sense it occurs in the Bible, as the figure is considered rather a blemish than an ornament. If it is used, it is certainly for unusual emphasis. (Bullinger, 700) 5. Hysteron proteron (or praeposteratio), the placing first in a sentence or clause of words which, in terms of sense, ought to come later. (Vickers 495) |
Example |
1. Put on your shoes and socks. 3. He was bred and born, for born and bred, at London. (Holmes) 4. Heb. 3:8. -"Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." (Bullinger, 701) 5. Th'Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral, |
Kind Of | Opposition |
Part Of | |
Related Figures | Figures of Order, hysterologia, anastrophe, hyperbaton |
Notes | |
Confidence | Unconfident |
Last Editor | Daniel Etigson |
Confidence | Unconfident |
Editorial Notes | |
Reviewed | No |