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What's it called when you switch the order of two words around, completely changing their meaning?

For example, simply childish becomes childishly simple.

Or wonderfully sarcastic becomes sarcastically wonderful.

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possible duplicate of Is there a term for switching syllables of words? – coleopterist Feb 28 at 19:49
@coleopterist No, this one is not a dup of the question on sybbalull switching. – tchrist Mar 1 at 0:31
@tchrist Is the answer to this one a dupe of the answer to that one? :] Wonderfully sarcastic -> sarcastic wonderfully = switching order of two words around; Wonderfully sarcastic -> sarcastically wonderful = switching syllables between two words (more or less). – coleopterist Mar 1 at 3:33

1 Answer

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Antimetabole:

is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order (e.g., "I know what I like, and I like what I know")

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“Then you should say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.  //  “I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least — at least I mean what I say — that’s the same thing, you know.”  //  “Not the same thing a bit!” said the Hatter.  “You might just as well say that «I see what I eat» is the same thing as «I eat what I see»!”  //  ...  //  “You might just as well say,” added the Dormouse, who seemed to be talking in his sleep, “that «I breathe when I sleep» is the same thing as «I sleep when I breathe»!”  –– en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland – Scott Feb 28 at 20:24
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You want to be careful with that; never overdo antimetabole. It can really have some serious effects on your metabolism. – John Lawler Feb 28 at 21:42

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