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assonance

Etymology and origin of the English word assonance

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈæsənəns/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French assonance,[2][3][4][5][6] from assonant, from Latin assonans, the present participle of assonāre “to resound, answer with the same sound”,[2][3][4][5] from ad- “to” and sonāre “to sound”.[2][3][4][5] It is related to sound and sonant.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Resemblance of sound between words or syllables (1727).[3][4][5][7]

Semantic evolution

In prosody, from 1823, the word meant the rhyming of accented vowels without the consonants, as in stony and holy.[7][4][5] From the early 20th century it has also been used for half-rhyme in general (1917),[7] and Etymonline notes that it tended to merge with consonance, although the two are properly distinct.[4] In a transferred sense it means a rough or partial agreement (1868).[7][2][6]

Timeline

  • 1727 – resemblance of sound.[3][4][5][7]
  • 1823 – vowel rhyme in prosody.[7][4]
  • 1868 – partial correspondence.[7]
  • 1917 – half-rhyme.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Resemblance of sound, especially of vowels, between words or syllables.
  2. In verse, the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds with different consonants, as in tilting at windmills; vowel rhyme.
  3. Rough similarity; partial agreement.

Word family

  • assonant
  • assonantal
  • consonance
  • alliteration
  • sonant

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Assonance.” Etymologically, 11 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/assonance. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·