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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.

-Michel de Montaigne, on marriage


It is not my interest to pay the principal nor is it my principle to pay the interest.

-Richard Brinsely Sheridan, to a lender


Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

-Benjamin Franklin


Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

-Thomas H. Huxley


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.

-Lyman Bryson


All misanthropes are curmudgeons, but all curmudgeons are not misanthropes.

-Florence King


The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one has to do.

-James Barrie, author and educator from Scotland


Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers.

-Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States


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
9. For a weekly newsletter and more information about chiasmi, visit his site at http://www.chiasmus.com.