different between rhythm vs strathspey

English

Etymology

First coined in 1557, from Latin rhythmus, from Ancient Greek ?????? (rhuthmós, “any measured flow or movement, symmetry, rhythm”), from ??? (rhé?, “I flow, run, stream, gush”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???.ð(?)m/
  • Rhymes: -?ð?m
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /???.?(?)m/

Noun

rhythm (countable and uncountable, plural rhythms)

1. The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.

   Dance to the rhythm of the music.

2. A specifically defined pattern of such variation.

   Most dances have a rhythm as distinctive as the Iambic verse in poetry

3. A flow, repetition or regularity.

   Once you get the rhythm of it, the job will become easy.

4. The tempo or speed of a beat, song or repetitive event.

   We walked with a quick, even rhythm.

5. The musical instruments which provide rhythm (mainly; not or less melody) in a musical ensemble.

   The Baroque term basso continuo is virtually equivalent to rhythm

6. A regular quantitative change in a variable (notably natural) process.

   The rhythm of the seasons dominates agriculture as well as wildlife

7. Controlled repetition of a phrase, incident or other element as a stylistic figure in literature and other narrative arts; the effect it creates.

   The running gag is a popular rhythm in motion pictures and theater comedy

Synonyms

• meter / metre
• prosody
• (instruments providing rhythm) rhythm section

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

English

Etymology

After Strathspey, valley of the river Spey.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?

Noun

strathspey (plural strathspeys)

1. A Scottish dance with gliding steps, slower than a reel.
2. A piece of music composed for or in the rhythm of this dance.
   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy:

     He muttered an exclamation in Gaelic, strode across the floor, and then, with an air of dogged resolution, as if fixed and prepared to see the scene to an end, sate himself down on the oak table, and whistled a strathspey.

   • 1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin 2006, p. 239:

     Arms are raised, the cheers are deafening, the pipes turn to a strathspey and a whole section of the crowd launches into a mad jig.