Definition of "hysteron proteron" []

• A figure of speech in which the natural or rational order of its terms is reversed, as in bred and born instead of born and bred. (noun)
• The logical fallacy of assuming as true and using as a premise a proposition that is yet to be proved. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The death of Isaac is not related in its proper order, as will soon appear from the connection of the history: but, as we have elsewhere seen, the figure hysteron proteron was familiar to Moses."
• "It is by a harmless hysteron proteron that the twelve are now and then described by Luke as “the apostles.”"