Definition:
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the words in reverse grammatical order (A-B-C, C-B-A). See chiasmus.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "turning about in the opposite direction"Examples:
- "Virtue that transgresses is but patch’d with sin, and sin that amends is but patch’d with virtue."
(Feste in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, I. v.) - "I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better."
(A. J. Liebling) - "He cared for nobody, no not he, and nobody cared for him."
(E.B. White, "Second World War") - "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us."
(Malcolm X) - "Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."
(Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) - "If a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who has been indicted."
(Jeffrey Rosen, The New Yorker) - "I, too, was born in the slum. But just because you're born in the slum does not mean the slum is born in you, and you can rise above it if your mind is made up."
(Jesse Jackson, speech at 1984 Democratic National Convention) - Mr. Furious: Okay, am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? "If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right." It's . . .
The Sphinx: Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage . . .
Mr. Furious: . . . your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say. Right? Right?
The Sphinx: Not necessarily.
(Mystery Men, 1999) - "Starkist doesn't want tuna with good taste, Starkist wants tuna that tastes good!"
(advertising slogan)
Pronunciation: an-tee-meh-TA-bo-lee
Also Known As: chiasmus
