chiasmus
/kʌɪˈazməs
/ /kɪˈazməs/noun
A rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order.One such description occurs in the opening lines of the poem as Milton joins two rhetorical devices, chiasmus and paradox, to declare his subject....
- Ovid's chiasmus is a rhetorical picture of the lovers being pulled apart.
- An analysis of this speech reveals that the student used varied repetition strategies, including anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, and parallelism.
Derivatives
chiastic
/ adjective ...- A series of chiastic inversions mark the last three lines.
- Rather, there is a chiastic relationship between Pascal and Goethe.
- It would appear that verses 1-11 of Zechariah 14 are expressed as a chiastic structure with verses 6 and 7 being the turning point.
Origin
Mid 17th century (in the sense 'crosswise arrangement'): modern Latin, from Greek khiasmos, from khiazein 'mark with the letter chi', from khi 'chi'.