Hysteron proteron is a figure of speech that reverses the natural or logical order of actions or ideas, putting what should come later before what should come first. Poets and writers use it to create emphasis, urgency, or a striking, memorable phrasing.
It is different from ordinary inversion of word order because the reversal is about sequence or logic, not just grammar.
Example
I spent the candle before I lit the dark.
First came the sigh, and then the wound that made it.
Examples: So he came, cart and horse. Night and day---Cole Porter. We never wondered how he garnered his butter and bread.
Related Definitions
[n] the logical fallacy of using as a true premise a proposition that is yet to be proved
[n] reversal of normal order of two words or sentences etc. (as in `bred and born')
Related Terms
anastrophe, argument, argument by analogy, argumentum ad baculum, argumentum ad captandum, argumentum ad hominem, arsy-varsiness, bad case, begging the question, chiasmus, circular argument, claptrap, clutter, crowd-pleasing argument, empty words, fallacy