Editing Chiastic structure (section)

==Etymology==
[[Image:Chiastic.jpg|thumb|120px|alt=A black cross on a white background. Clockwise at each point of the cross are the letters A, B, A, B.|When read left to right, top to bottom, the first topic (A) is reiterated as the last, and the middle concept (B) appears twice in succession. (Also, the middle concept could appear just once.)]]

The term ''chiastic'' derives from the mid-17th century term [[chiasmus]], which refers to a ''crosswise arrangement'' of concepts or words that are repeated in reverse order. ''Chiasmus'' derives from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word khiasmos, a word that is ''khiazein'', marked with the letter ''[[Chi (letter)|khi]]''. From ''khi'' comes ''chi''.

''Chi'' is made up of two lines crossing each other as in the shape of an ''X''. The line that starts leftmost on top, comes down, and  is rightmost on the bottom, and vice versa. If one thinks of the lines as concepts, one sees that concept A, which comes first, is also last, and concept B, which comes after A, comes before A. If one adds in more lines representing other concepts, one gets a chiastic structure with more concepts.