Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural chi·as·mi [kahy-az-mahy] /kaɪˈæz maɪ/. Rhetoric.
- a reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases, as in “He went to the country, to the town went she.”
noun plural -mi (-maɪ)
- rhetoric reversal of the order of words in the second of two parallel phraseshe came in triumph and in defeat departs
in grammar, inversion of word order, 1871, Latinized from Greek khiasmos “a placing crosswise, diagonal arrangement” (see chi).
Adam, first of men,
To first of women, Eve.
[“Paradise Lost”]