epenthesis

English

WOTD – 15 January 2008    

Wikipedia

Etymology

Middle of 16th century: via Late Latin, from Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις (epenthesis), from ἐπεντίθημι (epentithēmi, “I insert”), from ἐπί (epi) + ἐντίθημι (entithēmi, “I put in”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + τίθημι (tithēmi, “I put, place”).

Pronunciation

• (RP, US) IPA: /ɪˈpɛn.θə.sɪs/, X-SAMPA: /I"pEn.T@.sIs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

epenthesis (plural epentheses)

1. (phonetics, prosody) The insertion of a phoneme, letter, or syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonological constraints of a language or poetic context.

Derived terms

• epenthetic

Hypernyms

• metaplasm

Hyponyms

• excrescence
• anaptyxis

Translations

insertion of a phoneme or letter into a word

• Dutch: epenthesis (nl)
• French: épenthèse (fr)
• German: Fugenlaut (de)
• Italian: epentesi (it) f
• Polish: epenteza (pl) f

• Portuguese: epêntese (pt)
• Russian: эпентеза (ru) (epentéza) f
• Serbo-Croatian: epenteza (sh) f
• Spanish: epéntesis (es)
• Swedish: epentes (sv) c

External links

• Definition at silva rhetoricae, The Forest of Rhetoric

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɛˈpɛntəzɪs/
• Hyphenation: epen‧the‧sis

Etymology

Middle of 16th century: via Late Latin, from Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις (epenthesis), from ἐπεντίθημι (epentithēmi, “I insert”), from ἐπί (epi) + ἐντίθημι (entithēmi, “I put in”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + τίθημι (tithēmi, “I put, place”).

Noun

epenthesis f (plural epentheses)

1. (phonetics) epenthesis

   Vele Nederlandse woorden bevatten een epenthesis om twee zelfstandige naamwoorden te verbinden.

   A lot of Dutch words contain an epenthesis to tie two nouns together.