Dictionary

chiasmus en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kaɪˈæzməs/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek χῖ (khî) Ancient Greek -ᾰ́ζω (-ắzō) Ancient Greek χῑᾰ́ζω (khīắzō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek χιασμός (khiasmós)bor. Latin chiasmuslbor. English chiasmus Learned borrowing from Latin chiasmus, borrowed from Ancient Greek χιασμός (khiasmós), from χῑᾰ́ζω (khīắzō, “to mark with an X”) + -μός (-mós).

Meanings

1. (countable, rhetoric, uncountable) An inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases.
   • Leeman therefore holds that chiasmus is the basic order in Greek and Latin: antithesis is, he claims, normal for the modern, rational mind, but for the Greeks and Romans chiasmus was more natural. 2002, Simon R. Slings, “Figures of Speech in Aristophanes”, in Andreas Willi, editor, The Language of Greek Comedy, pages 103–104:
   • The realization that Mawlānā was using parallelism and chiasmus to organize the higher levels of his work has been a major surprise. 2009, Seyed Ghahreman Safavi, Simon Weightman, Rūmī's Mystical Design: Reading the Mathnawī, Book One, page 46:
   • John F. Kennedy is more famous for his chiasmus than for many of his policies: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." 1984, Ethel Grodzins Romm, “Persuasive Writing”, in American Bar Association Journal, 70: 158:
   • The book of Habakkuk has been discovered to consist of a closely knit chiastic structure throughout. This is the first poem of such length to stand revealed as a literary unit of this kind, though chiasmus has already been discovered throughout many psalms[…] 1934, H. H. Walker, N. W. Lund, “The Literary Structure of the Book of Habakkuk”, in Journal of Biblical Literature, 53 (4): 355:

Forms

Deriveds

chiastic

Relateds

anastrophe · antimetabole · chiasma

Synonyms

chiasm

Translations (19)

it chiasmo ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · pl chiazm ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · nn kiasme ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · ga croseagar ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · fr chiasme ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · cmn 犄角對 /犄角对 ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · ca quiasme ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · fi kiasma ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · ru хиазм ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · cmn 錯綜 /错综 ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · cmn 交股對 /交股对 ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · pt quiasmo ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · pt quiasma ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · de Chiasmus ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · es quiasmo ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · cmn 錯綜對 /错综对 ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · ru инверсия во второ́й половине фразы ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · sv kiasm ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases) · nb kiasme ((rhetoric) an inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases)

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