Words & WritingGreek → English
Chiasmus
/kaɪˈæzməs/noun
A figure in which the second half of a phrase reverses the order of the first.
The Greek roots
χιασμός
chiasmós
a crossing, X-shape
Literally: “a crossing shaped like the letter chi”
Follow a root:χιασμός1 word
The story of the word
The name is a diagram: write the two halves on two lines and the matching terms cross like the letter Χ. Kennedy's ask not what your country can do for you is the schoolroom case. Anatomy borrowed the same picture for the optic chiasm, the point where the two optic nerves cross behind the eyes.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
chiasmchiasticchi
In a sentence
The whole speech turned on a single chiasmus, and the crowd repeated it back to him.