chiasmus

American  

[kahy-az-muhs] / kaɪˈæz məs /

noun

Rhetoric.

plural

chiasmi

1. a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He went to the country, to the town went she.”

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chiasmus British  

/ kaɪˈæzməs, kaɪˈæstɪk /

noun

1. rhetoric reversal of the order of words in the second of two parallel phrases

   he came in triumph and in defeat departs

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Other Word Forms

• chiastic adjective

Etymology

Origin of chiasmus

1870–75; < Greek chiasmós, equivalent to chi chi ¹ + -asmos masculine noun suffix, akin to -asma; chiasma

Explanation

Chiasmus is a rhetorical technique that involves a reversal of terms, such as “It’s good to be lucky, but it’s lucky to be good.” Chiasmus is a literary device using repetition to create compelling statements, including many famous quotations, such as John F. Kennedy’s famous call to action: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." The roots of this word come from the Greek letter chi, which is roughly a cross shape, and chiasmus does involve a crossing over of terms, as in the saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.“

Example Sentences

This is the kind of thing that would get a tick from a kind schoolteacher for its use of chiasmus, but does risk falling prey to what psychologists term “left-hand truncation”.

From The Guardian • May 10, 2017

Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard points out that one of Douglass’ favorite rhetorical tropes was the chiasmus: the use of two clauses in a sentence in reversed order to create an inverse parallel.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 4, 2016

Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard points out that one of Douglass’s favorite rhetorical tropes was the chiasmus: the use of two clauses in a sentence in reversed order to create an inverse parallel.

From New York Times • Aug. 2, 2016

The cross-stitch of chiasmus is particularly favoured in Sonnet 30.

From The Guardian • May 20, 2013

You should imagine yourself walking through the verse, he said, stopping at the chiasmus, the middle line: He knows that which is in front of them and that which is behind them.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed