释义 |
diacritic, a. and n.|daɪəˈkrɪtɪk| [ad. Gr. διακριτικός, that separates or distinguishes, f. διακρίνειν to separate. In mod.F. diacritique.] A. adj. Serving to distinguish, distinctive; spec. in Gram. applied to signs or marks used to distinguish different sounds or values of the same letter or character; e.g. è, é, ê, ë, ė, ē, ĕ, ę, etc.
[1677Gale Crt. Gentiles iii. 87 Plato in his Repub. 9. makes a Philosopher to be ὄργανον διακριτικόν, a diacritic or very critic instrument.] 1699Wallis to Bp. Lloyd in Nicolson's Epist. Corr. I. 123 (T.), The Arabick ha or cha—distinguished only by the diacritick points. 1875T. Hill True Ord. Studies 106 Printed with diacritic signs. 1892Nation (N.Y.) 21 July 49/2 Printing ‘hī snōs’..‘brôt,’ ‘twilīt,’ ‘ëarlier,’ and other diacritic novelties. B. n. Gram. A diacritic sign or mark.
1866A. J. Ellis On Palæotype in Trans. Phil. Soc. 1867 App. I. 6 Lepsius's Standard Alphabet in which..as many as two or three diacritics are applied to a single body. 1877Sweet Phonetics 174 Even letters with accents and diacritics..being only cast for a few founts, act practically as new letters. Ibid. 175 We may consider the h in sh and th simply as a diacritic written for convenience on a line with the letter it modifies. 1888Athenæum 1 Sept. 287/1 A system which requires several new types and makes constant use of diacritics. |