antiphon
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From French antiphone or mediaeval Latin antiphona, from Greek ἀντίφωνα ‘responses, musical accords’, from ἀντί ‘in return’ + -φωνος ‘sounding’, from φωνή ‘vocal noise’. Compare anthem.
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈæntɪfən/
[edit] Noun
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Singular |
Plural |
antiphon (plural antiphons)
- A devotional piece of music sung responsively.
- A response or reply.
- 2007: The Clown [...] says: ‘And so we wept; and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed’; to which his father, the Shepherd, adds the comfortable antiphon, ‘We may live, son, to shed many more.’ — Barbara Everett, ‘Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances’, London Review of Books 29:6, p. 20
