alliteration

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin allitterātiō, recorded before 1503 in a work by the Italian humanist Pontanus,^[2] and formed from al-, a variant of ad (“to”), with littera (“letter”) and the suffix -ātiō.^[2][3][4][5] Sources differ on its model: the OED names allocūtiō,^[2] Hoad agnōminātiō (“paronomasia”),^[6] and Barnhart, Collins and Dictionary.com obliterātiō.^[7][8][9] Etymonline takes it as the noun of action from a verb meaning to begin with the same letter.^[10] Ayto explains the coinage by the idea of an accumulation of words beginning with the same letter.^[11] The OED compares Italian allitterazione, from 1609, and French allittération, from 1751 and perhaps from English.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of neighbouring words: 1624, in R. Montagu's Gagg for New Gospell?,^[2][12] earlier than the 1656 of Barnhart and the 1650s of Etymonline.^[7][10]

Semantic evolution

Blount's definition, quoted by Weekley, calls it a figure of rhetoric repeating and playing on the same letter.^[13] Johnson (1773) described it as the beginning of several words in one verse with one letter, citing Milton's "Behemoth biggest born".^[14] Churchill's "Apt alliteration's artful aid" comes from The Prophecy of Famine.^[13] In the late 18th century the word gained a technical use for the principle of versification in Old and Middle English and other Germanic poetry, and also in some Celtic poetry.^[3] The verb alliterate, a back-formation,^[10][7][11] is recorded from 1739.^[2]

Timeline

• 1624 – the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the start of adjacent words.^[2][12]
• late 18th century – a principle of versification, in Old and Middle English and other Germanic poetry.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The repetition of a sound, usually a consonant, at the beginning of neighbouring words or syllables: The slogan relied on alliteration: big, bold and bright.^[12][2][8]
2. In verse, the use of the same consonant, or of any vowel, at the start of each word or stressed syllable in a line, as a principle of composition in Germanic poetry.^[8][3]

Word family

• alliterate
• alliterative
• alliterational

Related words

• letter
• literal
• literate
• obliterate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.