prosody

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English prosodie, also prosodye,^[2][3][4][5] partly borrowed from Middle French prosodie and partly borrowed from Latin prosōdia (“accent of a syllable”),^[6] from Ancient Greek προσῳδία (prosōidía, “song sung to music; pitch of the voice; accent”),^[6][2][4][7] formed from πρός (prós, “to, toward; in addition”) and ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”), the source of ode.^[6][2][8][9] Most dictionaries name only the Latin word as the source;^{[3][4][7][10]} the OED, revising the entry in 2007, adds Middle French.^[6] Klein and Etymonline read the Greek compound literally as "a singing in addition to", and Ayto as a song with an instrumental accompaniment.^[11][2][8] Ayto stresses that the word has no etymological connection with prose, and that accent goes back to accentus, a word-for-word Latin translation of the Greek.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The theory and practice of versification, which then also took in the pronunciation of words: the first record is in the Ludus Coventriae, dated with a query to before 1475.^[6][12] Barnhart likewise says probably before 1475,^[4] Etymonline the late 15th century,^[2] and Dictionary.com 1400–50.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word moved from song accompanied by music to the rise and fall of the speaking voice and the pronunciation of a syllable on a certain pitch, and in Byzantine Greek to a written mark of such differences;^[6] Latin used it for the accent of a syllable.^[6][7] In Middle French it meant rules for pronouncing words from about 1400, and rules for the quantity of vowels, or a treatise on them, by 1573.^[6] English first applied it to versification; the sense of the correct pronunciation of words, now rare, followed in 1588.^[6][7] Johnson (1755) still joined the two, as the part of grammar that teaches the sound and quantity of syllables and the measures of verse.^[14] The linguist's use, for features such as intonation and stress that lie over the individual sounds, is recorded from 1929 in the journal Language, following the earlier adjective prosodic.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1475 – the theory and practice of versification.^[6][4]
• 1588 – the correct pronunciation of words (now rare).^[6]
• 1929 – in phonology, a feature such as intonation or stress.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The study of metre and versification, including rhyme, stanza forms and the stress and quantity of syllables.^[15][5][6]
2. A particular system or style of versification.^[15][5][3]
3. A treatise on versification.^[5][6]
4. (linguistics) The patterns of stress, intonation and rhythm in speech, or one such feature.^[15][3][6]
5. (rare) The correct pronunciation of words according to rule.^[6][7]

Word family

• prosodic
• prosodically
• prosodist

Related words

• ode
• parody
• rhapsody
• tragedy
• accent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins