emphasis
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈɛmfəsɪs/[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Latin emphasis,[2][3] from Ancient Greek ἔμφασις (émphasis, “appearance; in rhetoric, significance, implied meaning”),[2][3][4] from ἐμφαίνω (emphaínein, “to show, exhibit”), from ἐν (en, “in”) and φαίνω (phaínein, “to show”) (see fantasy).[2][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Vigour or intensity of expression: 1573 in the OED and Barnhart, the 1570s in Etymonline.[6][2][3]
Semantic evolution
In Greek and Latin rhetoric it meant a figure of speech that implies more than is said, the original English sense in NODE, recorded in 1589.[4][6] From this came the delivery suited to suggestive expression, rhetorical stress, and then any extra stress of voice on a word.[3] Intensity of feeling or action is from 1602,[6] and prominence or importance given to something is a 19th-century sense.[5] Emphatic is from 1708 and emphasize from 1828.[2]
Timeline
- 1573 – intensity of expression.[6][2]
- 1589 – the rhetorical figure.[6]
- 1602 – intensity of feeling.[6]
- 1708 – emphatic.[2]
- 1828 – emphasize.[2]
Modern meaning
Noun
- Special importance or value given to something.
- Extra force given to a word or syllable in speaking; stress.
- Intensity of expression or feeling.
Word family
- misemphasis
- overemphasis
- preemphasis
- reemphasis
- superemphasis
- underemphasis
- de-emphasis
Related words
- emphatic
- emphasise
- emphasize
- phase
- phenomenon
- fantasy
- diaphanous
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press