| 释义 |
disyllabic, dissyllabic, a. (and n.)|daɪ-, dɪsɪˈlæbɪk|
[a. F. dissyllabique (16th c.), f. L. disyllab-us (see prec. and -ic): after syllabic.
In this and the following related words, as also in trisyllable, etc., the non-etymological spellings diss-, triss-, were originally taken over from French (dissyllabe, trissyllabe, etc.), in which, according to Darmesteter, the function of the ss is ‘to express the hard sound of the s’. In English, trissyllable, though frequent in 17–18th c., was early corrected in the Dictionaries and altered to trisyllable. Dissyllable was universal in 17–18th c., and (app. either under the erroneous impression that it contains, not the Greek prefix δι-, but the word δίς, or from association with words in the Latin prefix dis-, as disseminate, dissimulate, dissonant, etc.), is still the spelling of the majority. But classical scholars now prefer the etymological form, which has also been approved by the Philological Society.]
Consisting of two syllables. Also as n.
a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram. i. vii, In all nounes dissyllabick. 1812Byron Waltz xiii, note, There are several dissyllabic names. 1840F. Trollope Widow Married iv, The postman's speaking dissyllabic signal. 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §119 The elongation of this vowel has in a few instances produced a disyllabic word out of an old monosyllable. 1934Jespersen Essent. Eng. Gram. iv. 41 Fire and hire are disyllabics as early as in Shakespeare. 1935Curme Gram. Eng. Lang. II. 341 The dissyllabics, often and early. |