chiasmus
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /kaɪˈæzməs/
Noun

chiasmus

  1. (rhetoric) An inversion of the relationship between the elements of phrases.
    • 1934, H. H. Walker & N. W. Lund "The Literary Structure of the Book of Habakkuk", Journal of Biblical Literature 53 (4): 355.
      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 […]
    • 1984, Ethel Grodzins Romm, "Persuasive Writing", American Bar Association Journal 70: 158.
      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."
    • 2002, Simon R. Slings, "Figures of Speech in Aristophanes", in Andreas Willi (editor), The Language of Greek Comedy, pages 103-104
      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.
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