Words & WritingGreek → English
Syllable
/ˈsɪləbəl/noun
A unit of pronunciation with one vowel sound, with or without consonants around it.
The Greek roots
σύν
sýn
together, with
λαμβάνειν
lambánein
to take, grasp
Literally: “a taking together”
The story of the word
συλλαβή is what the voice takes hold of in one grip. Greek verse counted syllables by length rather than stress, so a line of Homer is a pattern of long and short quantities and not of beats, which is why English hexameters never sound quite like the original. Syllabus looks related and is not: it seems to be a printing error in a Renaissance edition of Cicero for a Greek word meaning parchment labels, a ghost word that got a job.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
epilepsycatalepsydilemmaanaleptic
In a sentence
He said the name slowly, one syllable at a time, so the clerk would spell it right.