different between syllable vs melisma

English

Alternative forms

• syllab (obsolete)
• syllabe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English syllable, sillable, syllabylle, sylabul, from Anglo-Norman sillable, from Old French sillebe, from Latin syllaba, from Ancient Greek ??????? (sullab?), from ?????????? (sullambán?, “I gather together”), from ???- (sun-, “together”) + ??????? (lambán?, “I take”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /?s?l?b?l/, [?s?l?b?]
• Hyphenation: syl?la?ble

Noun

syllable (plural syllables)

1. (linguistics) A unit of human speech that is interpreted by the listener as a single sound, although syllables usually consist of one or more vowel sounds, either alone or combined with the sound of one or more consonants; a word consists of one or more syllables.

   Meronyms: onset, nucleus, coda, rime
2. The written representation of a given pronounced syllable.
3. A small part of a sentence or discourse; anything concise or short; a particle.
   • 1622, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, 60:

     Then let them cast backe their eies unto former generations of men, and marke what was done in the prime of the World, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Sem, Abraham, Job, and the rest that lived before any syllable of the Law of God was written, did they not sinne as much as we doe in every action not commanded?

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth Act 5 Scene 1:

     Is the King's hand and tongue; and The Archbishop
     Is the King's hand and tongue; and who dare speak
     One syllable against him?

Derived terms

Related terms

• syllabus

Translations

Verb

syllable (third-person singular simple present syllables, present participle syllabling, simple past and past participle syllabled)

1. (transitive, poetic) To utter in syllables.
   • 1645, John Milton, “A Mask Presented At Ludlow-Castle, 1634. etc.” [Comus] in Poems, 84:

     Begin to throng A thousand fantasies
     Begin to throng into my memory
     Of calling shapes, and beckning shadows dire,
     And airy tongues, that syllable mens names
     On Sands, and Shoars, and desert Wildernesses.

Translations

Further reading

• syllable on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ??????? (mélisma, “song”), from ?????? (melíz?, “(I) sing, modulate; (I) celebrate in song”), from ????? (mélos, “song, tune, melody; limb, part; member”)

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /m??l?zm?/

Noun

melisma (plural melismas or melismata)

1. (music) A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in Gregorian chant.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, p. 38:

     At the top of the hill in the archway of the main house, an eyeless old man sat on a bucket, scratching at a two-stringed gourd, warbling weird melismas on a madman's text.

   • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:

     A choir sang one of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The mournful melisma accompanied the slow procession to the palace built by Herod the Great, at present untenanted.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:melisma.

Translations

References

• melisma in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• lammies

Czech

Noun

melisma n

1. (music) melisma

Derived terms

• melismatický
• melismaticky
• melismatika

Further reading

• melisma in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• melisma in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Portuguese

Noun

melisma m (plural melismas)

1. (music) melisma (a passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text)

Spanish

Noun

melisma m (plural melismas)

1. melisma