n., pl., -mi (-mī').
A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures, as in "Each throat/Was parched, and glazed each eye" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
[New Latin chīasmus, from Greek khīasmos, syntactic inversion, from khīazein, to invert or mark with an X. See chiasma.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
