litcrit "chiasmatic"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Oct 30, 2007, at 4:13 PM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> 2005 Wyatt Bonikowski in _Modern Fiction Studies_ LI (Fall) 513: I
> will pay particular attention to the chiasmatic crossings of
> dichotomies in these texts - especially the external and the
> internal, visible and invisible, surface and depth, body and mind,
> which the metaphors of penetration figure.
>
>   Dr. Bonikowski is Assistant Professor of English at Suffolk
> University, Boston.
>
>   Not in OED. Why the cover-up?

"chiasmatic" for the anatomical term (relating to the optic chiasm
(a)) and the cytological term (referring to cross-overs in genes) is
in the OED (1997 revisions); AHD4 gives "chiasmal" and "chiasmic" as
well as "chiasmatic" in these senses.  for the adjective related to
the literary figure chiasmus (or chiasm), most people seem to use
"chiastic", and the OED has long had an entry for *that*.

"chiasmatic crossings" borders on redundancy.

arnold

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