Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures, as in
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In rhetoric, the arrangement of repeated, parallel, or contrasted words or phrases in two pairs, the second of which reverses the order of the first: as, do not live to eat, but eat to live; or as in the following quotation
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rhet.) An inversion of the order of words or phrases, when repeated or subsequently referred to in a sentence.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun rhetoric An
inversion of the relationship between theelements of phrases.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun inversion in the second of two parallel phrases
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Had this been said by Gucci Mane, I'd use it as further evidence of his learning disability. hey i learned the word chiasmus posted by
MetaFilter 2010
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But they slipped the code-word "chiasmus" into their conversation so that I could identify them.
SBL (Secret Bibliobloggers' League): A Top Secret Debriefing on the 2009 Annual Meeting in New Orleans James F. McGrath 2009
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But they slipped the code-word "chiasmus" into their conversation so that I could identify them.
Archive 2009-11-01 James F. McGrath 2009
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In many pages of protracted rumination, Corngold intermixed his own insights with already enigmatic passages from Kafka, thus producing (often specious) effects of "chiasmus" yielding a "boundless field of incessant metaphorical exchange" (p. 121), a "free play between given metaphors which accommodates new metaphors at the same time that it robs each of determinate meaning" (p. 123), and "a movement of thought that spirals on through endless reversals" (p. 153).
'Kafka Up Close': An Exchange Corngold, Stanley 2005
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Allegorizing poetic presence, Coleridge not only suggests that sound, like light, is a powerline through the air; he's also working with the chiasmus of sound as a phonological paradigm.
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According to Virginia Tenzer, the fact that only one taper at Urbino is lit suggests that this virtue is enacted in the present, at the chiasmus of the past and future, and "that prudence is a habit of mind exercised by Federico" (Iconography, 198).
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008
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Chesterton ' s love of chiasmus — the ABBA pattern in which repetition involves reversal.
The Syntax of Style Henry Hitchings 2010
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But while chiasmus and ellipsis were familiar, many of his terms were new to me.
The Syntax of Style Henry Hitchings 2010
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Not as a call to battle, though embattled we are, that would be both chiasmus and plyptoton.
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Which nations are better versed in Cohen's vision of human relations, in bible-like chiasmus: "when it all comes down to dust, I will kill you if I must, I will help you if I can; when it all comes down to dust, I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can."
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“We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example.” This line, which he has used in other speeches (and which Bill Clinton also used in his speech nominating Obama back in 2008), was both a distillation of a swing away from Trumpism (as Fred Kaplan observed) and a handy case study of the rhetorical technique called chiasmus, or reversing terms
Why Biden’s Inaugural Address Succeeded James Fallows 2021
seanahan commented on the word chiasmus
I can't believe nobody has posted this.
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
October 18, 2007
uselessness commented on the word chiasmus
Don't let a kiss fool you, or a fool kiss you.
October 18, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word chiasmus
Love it! Can't think of any good ones though... Wait! "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." Is that one?
October 18, 2007
skipvia commented on the word chiasmus
If you want to head off a balanced attack by your enemy, you must balance a tack hammer on your head.
Close, anyway...
October 18, 2007
fbharjo commented on the word chiasmus
chiastic was posted long ago. What a double cross!!!!!
October 18, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word chiasmus
Well, if you bracket it in your comment (can you still edit it?) then we could all click there whenever we get to this page. That'd be cool. :)
I think this word is a little more elegant though.
Also, reading the wiki page for this word makes my head hurt. It's lucky I don't have to understand Latin poetry for any conceivable reason...
October 18, 2007
reesetee commented on the word chiasmus
I think fbharjo was riffing on the word's etymology, yes fb? I've noticed that you enjoy doing that. :-)
October 18, 2007
fbharjo commented on the word chiasmus
Reseetee - That course of - of course that ???? yes sey
October 18, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word chiasmus
Oh. Well... *head hurts*
October 18, 2007
seanahan commented on the word chiasmus
I want real pain for my sham friends and champagne for my real friends.
October 18, 2007
reesetee commented on the word chiasmus
Right. What fbharjo said. *arms crossed*
October 18, 2007
sionnach commented on the word chiasmus
Seanahan has triggered an indelible memory. Though it was my mother who had the musical talent in the family, my Dad would regularly bring down the house with his rendition of "The Charladies' Ball". Here is the chorus.
CHORUS: At the Charladies' Ball said one and all,
"You're the belle of the ball, Mrs. Mulligan."
We had one-steps and two-steps and the divil knows what new steps.
We swore that we never would be dull again, by dad.
We had wine, porter and Jameson. We had cocoa and all.
We had champagne that night but real pains next morning,
The night that we danced at the Charladies' Ball.
Full lyrics can be found here:
http://www.black-brothers.com/songs/26.htm
October 18, 2007
recombinantdna commented on the word chiasmus
A really good example from Wikipedia:
"Swift as an arrow flying, fleeing like a hare afraid"
adjective, simile, gerund, gerund, simile, adjective
(A B C C B A); subtler that the other examples here, but you can see how much more powerful it is than the "parallel form" (A B C A B C):
"Swift as an arrow flying, afraid like a hare fleeing."
February 15, 2009
tbtabby commented on the word chiasmus
When writing fiction, bear in mind: the plot doesn't drive the characters, the characters drive the plot.
April 23, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word chiasmus
Indeed. For many people (perhaps sadly), that's the difference between fiction and life.
April 23, 2009
seanahan commented on the word chiasmus
Wow chained_bear, that may be the deepest statement every made on Wordie. I'm trying to wrap my head around the implications of fantasy and reality and how people live their lives. Consider my mind blown.
April 24, 2009
bilby commented on the word chiasmus
"the plot doesn't drive the characters, the characters drive the plot."
... dangerous. Just as you say something like this, along will come a precociously talented storyteller to turn convention on its head.
April 24, 2009
rolig commented on the word chiasmus
But don't forget what Heraclitus said: "Character is destiny."
April 24, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word chiasmus
But he's really old and crusty now.
;)
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me
Than have to have a frontal lobotomyyyyy....
April 24, 2009
pterodactyl commented on the word chiasmus
♩I might be drunk, but at least I'm not insaaaaaane! ♩
April 25, 2009
youanden commented on the word chiasmus
Examples:
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy
Fair is foul, and foul is fair. - William Shakespeare
Never let a fool kiss you--or a kiss fool you.
June 9, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word chiasmus
From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport.
January 19, 2010
tbtabby commented on the word chiasmus
"Eat to live, don't live to eat." -Cicero
January 27, 2010
bryandavidk commented on the word chiasmus
"Good meat isn't cheap, and cheap meat isn't good." - from a photo album of Joplin, MO written by a sign painter, hanging in an old butcher's shop.
February 8, 2013
bryandavidk commented on the word chiasmus
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." -JFK
February 8, 2013
bryandavidk commented on the word chiasmus
Found another great chiasmus of sorts - "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" used by Carl Sagan... but he probably got it from someone else. Seems that it is a pretty popular in propositional logic and has cool Latin name, "Modus Tollens". I miss Latin class, but not Catholic school.
February 14, 2013