macron
English
WOTD – 8 May 2017
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón), neuter form of μακρός (makrós, “long”) (English macro-).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: măkʹrŏn, mākʹrŏn, IPA(key): /ˈmækɹɒn/, /ˈmeɪkɹɒn/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈmeɪkɹɑn/, /ˈmækɹɑn/
- Hyphenation: ma‧cron
Noun
Examples |
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macron (plural macrons or (rare) macra)
- (orthography) A short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark (◌̄) placed over a letter, usually to indicate that the pronunciation of a vowel is long. [from 19th c.]
- Antonyms: breve, micron
- Hypernym: bar
- Coordinate terms: solidus, vinculum, long-vowel mark, overline, overbar, overscore, ◌̅
- 1889, Rebecca S[mith] Pollard, A Complete Manual: Pollard’s Synthetic Method of Reading and Spelling. Designed to Accompany Synthetic Readers and Spellers, New York, N.Y.: American Book Company, →OCLC, page 75:
- We say such words belong to a Long family, because of the long macron hat the vowels wear. Like the other twin o's, one hat is enough for both, for these twins are always found together.
- 1974, Floyd L. Moreland, Rita M. Fleischer, Latin: An Intensive Course, University of California Press, page 13:
- A macron is a mark placed above a long vowel to mark its quantity.
- 1986, Peter V. Jones, Keith C. Sidwell, “Introduction”, in Reading Latin, volumes 1 (Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 2, general note 1:
- All vowels are pronounced short unless marked with a ¯ (macron) over them. So observe different vowel length of ‘i ’ in, e.g., fīlia, etc. It may be helpful, but is not essential, to mark macra in your exercises.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark
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Further reading
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “macron”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
- Macron (diacritic) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Dutch
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón), neuter form of μακρός (makrós, “long”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmaː.krɔn/
Audio (file) Audio (file)
Hypernyms
- diakriet
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