Neighbor News
Word of the Day - Diaeresis
A word a day is for play. Write a sentence, story or poem. Use the word in a comment. Let's explore this lovely language together.
diaeresis
Pronunciation: /dʌɪˈɪərɪsɪs/
/dʌɪˈɛrɪsɪs/
(US dieresis)
noun (plural diaereses dʌɪˈɪərɪsiːzdʌɪˈɛrɪsiːz)
1 A mark (¨) placed over a vowel to indicate that it is sounded separately, as in naïve, Brontë.
1.1 [mass noun] The division of a sound into two syllables, especially by sounding a diphthong as two vowels.
2 Prosody A natural rhythmic break in a line of verse where the end of a metrical foot coincides with the end of a phrase.
Origin
Late 16th century (denoting the division of one syllable into two): via Latin from Greek diairesis ‘separation’, from diairein ‘take apart’, from dia ‘apart’ + hairein ‘take’.
¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨-_-¨
Fortunately, spelling differences prevent us from confusing a diaeresis from some diarrhea. The other thing which helps is that kids don’t know the word. Therefore, we would not expect to hear anybody complain, “Mom! I had diaeresis this morning. I should stay home from school.” Of course, if you are a sneaky kid, reading this WotD before your parents, you might just try that tomorrow.
