This phrase, an example of chiasmus (ky-AZ-mus), is also the title of a delightful little book I just found that collects examples. It's easier to grasp the meaning of "chiasmus" from the examples than from the definition: chiasmus: A rhetorical inversion of the second of two parallel structures.
Much fun. What examples can we come up with?
PS: Attention, Winterbranch! This should be fun for you.
PPS: I'm sending a note to the author, Dr. Mardy Grothe, hoping he'll join us here.
Yes, chi-rho (ch and r) are even used in churchs as a simple for Christ. It's from the order of the words in the first phrase being reversed in the second. A : B :: B : A. In your example above, A == fool and B == kiss. I've also seen chiasmus done with nouns and the adjectives that qualify them.
quote: And is chi/cross related to the word "christ"?
The χ character is the initial letter of the word Christ in Greek, and since it resembles the Roman letter X, is used in churches as a symbol for Christ. The most common use is in the word "Xmas".
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Don't know if this applies but my Wordcraft password used to be "craftywords," chosen of course because it was easy to memorize.
I say "used to be" since I have since changed it (for obvious reasons) BUT for some reason, when I exited Wordcraft and re-entered to confirm that my new password worked, the system wouldn't recognize it. Plus it choked on my old "craftywords" as well.
Long story short, it's taken me some 30-45 minutes to figure out that the only solution was to completely register as "Chris J. Strolin" since the system repeated told me that we already have a "C J Strolin" (the implication being that one is more than enough -and yes I've heard that before!) on board.
I am now listed as the board's newest member (no welcoming messages are required, thank you) and, while I was at it, I picked an avatar from the rather meager selection which was available. I chose it because it most closely reflected my personality - part man and part asparagus.
And, speaking of new members, I notice that "light" didn't make the list. Is this all due to the newness of the present system?
Before we return to the subject of chiasmus, question for you greek scholars.
The letter called chi: how is that name pronounced? Is it called "KY" or "CHY"? And when it is used in words, does it have the K sound (as in "Christ" or "chiasmus") or the CH sound?
What is the difference between JFK (1960) and JFK (2004)? John F. Kennedy had no problem with charisma, and a bad spine. John F. Kerry has a bad problem with charisma, and no spine.
For writers are to be polite in every sense, courteous in manner and properly skilled in literature. To 'have to read the sentence twice, even though you didn't want to read it once' is to suffer undeservedly. Worse still is the wince produced by 'genteelisms': 'a forty-minute hike brought the dog and I to the top of the hill.' A belated disciple of Fowler, Amis abhors Elegant Variation: 'If the President seemed to support the Radicals in New York, in Washington he appeared to back the Conservatives.' This is not only Elegant Variation but Pointless Chiasmus, a crime I have only this minute identified.
From Frank Kermode's review of 'The War Against Cliche' by Martin Amis.
The letter called chi: how is that name pronounced? Is it called "KY" or "CHY"? And when it is used in words, does it have the K sound (as in "Christ" or "chiasmus") or the CH sound?
In English, Classical or Modern Greek? In English, it's /kaj/, in Classical Greek is was probably /ki/ and in Modern Greek it's /xi/ (with the /x/ as in chutzpah.
No Kalleh, I'm afraid not. That is the old classic example of Chiasmus, which I learned junior year in high school. I've pretty much forgotten all the other examples, but that one is just so poetic that you can't forget it. I say it about once a month, in various circumstances. I consider it the crowning achievement of the English language.
I'm not quite sure how that fits into the category of Chiasmus, but then again, I don't quite get another example from the aforementioned website "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan".
From the Daily Show tonight, "George Bush declined to speak for the NAACP for five years in a row, due to scheduling conflicts. He was too busy scheduling conflicts.
I was just reading an article which mentioned the ratio of men to women in the State of Alaska are 8:1. It then stated "The odds are good, but the goods are odd."
