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.

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language TOM McARTHUR

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).

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD

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