chiasmus

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chi·as·mus

(kī-ăz′məs)

n. pl. chi·as·mi (-mī′)

A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures, as in "Each throat / Was parched, and glazed each eye" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).

[New Latin chīasmus, from Greek khīasmos, syntactic inversion, from khīazein, to invert or mark with an X; see chiasma.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

chiasmus

(kaɪˈæzməs)

n, pl -mi (-maɪ)

(Rhetoric) rhetoric reversal of the order of words in the second of two parallel phrases: he came in triumph and in defeat departs.

[C19: from New Latin, from Greek khiasmos crisscross arrangement; see chiasma]

chiastic adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

chi•as•mus

(kaɪˈæz məs)

n., pl. -mi (-mī).

a reversal in the order of words in two parallel phrases, as in “He went in, out went she.”

[1870–75; < Greek chiasmós; see chiasma]

chi•as′tic (-ˈæs tɪk) adj.

chiasmus

a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as “flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike” (Coleridge). — chiastic, adj.

chiasmus

The reversal in a second parallel phrase of the order of words in an initial phrase.

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Noun

chiasmus - inversion in the second of two parallel phrases

rhetorical device - a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)

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References in periodicals archive ?

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(34) Chiasmus names a rhetorical device in which words, phrases, and structures parallel each other in reverse order.

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However, Traub's arrangement of them as a dynamic chiasmus enables her to produce a useful and original argument about the term "lesbian"--one that might resolve a debate about finding lesbian or feminist forebears in history.

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This book is not a summary of that scholarship but rather something of a popularization of many of its conclusions pressed into the service of a study of coherence as exemplified in the Quran through symmetry, chiasmus, and pairing/organization of suras into unified sections or systems of textual and narrative coherence.

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Jakobson's chiasmus is undeniably elegant, and the beauty of a clear and simple structural description is in many respects worth striving for in scientific analysis.

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Now on to the more, um, normal examples of spoonerisms, transpositions, and chiasmus.