Fact of the Day : What is a chiasmus? (from A Dictionary of Psychology)
chiasmus n. A figure of speech in which the main elements are repeated in a reversed order to create a symmetrically balanced structure, as in Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country (The inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, 1917–63, 35th US president, 20 January 1961).
Two of the best psychological examples are I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full-frontal lobotomy and the following mordant comment on achieving something that makes others jealous: It's champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends. chiasmi pl. chiasmic adj. [From Greek chiasmos a crisscross arrangement, from chiasma a cross, named after the shape of the upper-case letter chi (X) + ismos indicating a state or condition]
How to cite this entry:
"chiasmus n." A Dictionary of Psychology. Edited by Andrew M. Colman. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 26 January 2012
