chiasto-, chiasm- (Greek: crossed, laid crosswise).From ciazein to make in the shape of the Greek letter X, chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet.chiasma, [s., kigh AZ muh] chiasmata [pl., kigh AZ muh tuh]: 1. A crossing; two things placed cross-wise. 2. In anatomy, the crossing over of body parts; any crossing over of biological tissue. 3. A crossing or intersection of the optic nerves on the ventral surface of the brain. chiasmatypy [kigh AZ muh tigh" pee]: A twisting of homologous chromosomes about each other during one state of meiosis, resulting in a possible interchange of genes by the chromosomes. chiasmus [s., kigh AZ muhs], chiasmi [pl., kigh AZ migh]: 1. Inversion of word order. 2. A rhetorical construction in which the order of the words in the second of two paired phrases, clauses, etc., is the reverse of the order in the first. 3. A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures. chiastic, chiasmal, chiasmic:
Pertaining to, or characterized by chiasmus.
Examples of chiasmi:It [marriage] may be compared to a cage: the birds without try desperately to get in, and those within try desperately to get out.It is not my interest to pay the principal nor is it my principle to pay the interest. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error of age is to believe that experience is a substitute for intelligence. All misanthropes are curmudgeons, but all curmudgeons are not misanthropes. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do. Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers. The previous examples come from Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You, by Dr. Mardy Grothe; Published by Viking; a member of the Penguin Group; New York; 199 |