CHIASMUS

views updated May 23 2018

CHIASMUS, also chiasm. In RHETORIC, and INVERSION of word order that creates a counterbalancing effect in the second of two linked phrases: ‘One must eat to live, not live to eat’ (Cicero); ‘This man I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords’ ( Samuel Johnson, of Lord Chesterfield, 1754). See ANTITHESIS.

chiasmus

views updated Jun 08 2018

chiasmus figure of speech in which the order of parallel words in phrases is inverted. XIX. — modL. — Gr. khiasmós crossing, diagonal arrangement, f. khiázein mark with the letter X (khī).