syllable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sillable, also silable and sillabil,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman sillable,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} an alteration of Old French sillabe (12th century),^[8][3] modern French syllabe, from Latin syllaba,^[8][4][9] from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ, “a taking together; a syllable”).^[7][4][8] The Greek noun is from συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to take or put together, gather”), formed of σύν (sún, “together”) and λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take, grasp”).^{[9][7][3][10]} The extra l apparently came by analogy with participle and principle.^[4][8][11] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1214–16.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A unit of pronunciation: the MED's first quotation is from the preface to Jerome in the Wycliffite Bible, before 1382.^[2] The OED's first is from Chaucer's House of Fame, about 1384,^[3] which Barnhart dates about 1380.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Greek word meant a group of letters taken together, and Ayto explains it as a "gathering together" of letters, sounded as one.^[7][8] By 1390 Gower used it of a part of a word considered for its meaning,^[3] and after 1434 it could mean the least part or trace of what is said, as in not a syllable.^[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "as much of a word as is uttered by the help of one vowel, or one articulation".^[13] The verb, to utter in syllables or articulate, is used from 1633,^[3][5] and the phrase in words of one syllable, in very simple language, from 1922.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1382 – a syllable, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[2]
• c. 1384 – a unit of pronunciation, in Chaucer.^[3][4]
• 1390 – a word or part of a word considered for its meaning.^[3]
• 1434 – the least portion of speech or writing.^[3]
• c. 1475 – verb, to arrange in syllables.^[3]
• 1633 – verb, to pronounce, articulate.^[3]
• 1922 – in words of one syllable.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A unit of spoken language made of a vowel sound, or a syllabic consonant, alone or with consonants around it, and pronounced without interruption: The word “banana” has three syllables.^[14][15][3]
2. The written letters that stand for such a unit.^[14][15]
3. The least bit of something said or written: Not a syllable of the plan reached the press.^[14][3]
4. in words of one syllable: in very simple terms.^[3][14]

Verb

1. To pronounce in syllables or articulate distinctly; to utter.^[3][5][15]

Word family

• ambisyllabic
• decasyllable
• disyllable
• hendecasyllable
• heptasyllable
• hexasyllable
• multisyllable
• octosyllable

Related words

• syllabus
• syllabic
• syllabary
• monosyllable
• lemma
• dilemma

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster