Siamese twins or binomials are pairs of expressions which are often conjoined. For example:

  • back and forth
  • ebb and flow
  • near and far
  • better or worse
  • do or die

Is there is a name for the rhetorical device of swapping their order? For example:

  • forth and back
  • flow and ebb
  • far and near
  • worse or better
  • die or do

One might call this device reversal or inversion, but I am wondering if there's a specific name. I couldn't find anything in Landman's Handlist of Rhetorical Terms or on web lists.

EDIT: I don't think it counts as epanados since the words have not already (by hypothesis) been introduced in their standard order.


Solution 1:

Consider

Hyperbaton

a generic term for changing the normal or expected order of words.