# Chiasmus--It's not a thread about a game, but the game in your thread. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177 "2003-01-07T20:20:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/1 "2003-01-07T20:20:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Main Entry: chi·as·mus > Pronunciation: kI-'az-m&s, kE- > Function: noun > Etymology: New Latin, from Greek chiasmos, from chiazein to mark with a chi > Date: 1871 > : an inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases (as in Goldsmith’s\* to stop too fearful, and too faint to go\*) The example in the dictionary did not do it for me, but here is another example: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. Or It’s not the men in my life; it’s the life in my men. And for those who enjoy getting super-fancy, palindromatic (is that a word?) chiamuses, um, chiamusi. . . er chiamusen. Whatever. All for one and one for all. Eat to live not live to eat. It’s a game. A really, really easy game. Think up a chiamus better than mine. It is better your heart be fooled by men than your brain manned by fools. See? Easy! You don’t even have to think one up. Any good one will do. ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/2 "2003-01-07T20:33:22Z")
Once said by me, about writing: It’s not that I don’t have the discipline to make the time, it’s that I don’t have the time to make the discipline. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/3 "2003-01-07T20:49:53Z")
I work to live, I don’t live to work. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/4 "2003-01-07T21:12:01Z")
Just a quick clarifier…a chiasm does not have to invert the words themselves, just the parts of speech. Classical writers used chiasmi liberally, but they would tend to find deliberate repetition of the same words to be extremely crude. It just has to be in the form ABBA, in which A is an adjective and B is a noun. The “Golden Line” is a chiasm with a verb in the middle, in the form ABCBA. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/5 "2003-01-07T21:19:45Z")
All right **Maeglin** , you lose. That was the worse one ever! ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/6 "2003-01-07T21:59:54Z")
ARG! Talk like this Yoda does. Now that I have a word for the way Yoda talks his speech will forever be burned into my mind, not that I mind being burned. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/7 "2003-01-07T23:20:45Z")
If you want to be original, don’t read [this book](http://www.chiasmus.com/). If you read this book, you wont be original. yeah, that sucked… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/8 "2003-01-07T23:30:50Z")
The unlived life is not worth examining. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/9 "2003-01-08T14:50:01Z")
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/10 "2003-01-08T16:32:35Z")
Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have been loose at all. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/11 "2003-01-08T16:55:16Z")
I guess this rest room graffiti qualifies… God is Dead - Neitzche Neitzche is Dead - God and in later editions: Neitzche is God - the 'Dead ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chiasmus-its-not-a-thread-about-a-game-but-the-game-in-your-thread/147177/12 "2003-01-08T16:56:02Z")
It’s not the men in your life that matters, it’s draining the life out of your men. (with a nod to Mae West)