Caesura

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Dr. Goodword
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Caesura

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Nov 08, 2022 8:09 pm

• caesura •


Pronunciation: si-zur-ê, si-zhur-ê • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A break in a line of verse, usually made to take a breath. 2. A break, hiatus, or interruption in anything else, such as, "A vacation is a happy caesura in work."

Notes: Here is a word we hardly ever hear outside academia. You are more likely to encounter it in writing. Its adjective is caesural. If you want to be extremely arcane, you may even use the Latin plural, caesurae. Written, this plural is rather eye-catching. If you want to push the arcanity even further, use a-e ligatures: cæsuræ, available now on most word processors.

In Play: The original reference of today's Good Word was to verse: "The poet had no sense of caesura, so his gestures were misplaced, destroying the harmony of the reading." But this word may be used in referring to any hiatus of any sort of flow or series: "The novels of Leo Tolstoy entered a 20-year caesura, during which time he wrote short philosophical stories and children's stories, like 'The Three Bears'".

Word History: This Good Word was taken whole from Latin caesura "a cutting" based on caesus, the past participle of caedere "to cut off, cut down, kill". Latin inherited the word from Proto-Indo-European kaê-id- "to strike, hit". Latin was apparently the only Indo-European language that received this PIE word; there is no trace of it in Germanic languages like English and German. English did borrow a Latin suffix based on this PIE root in -cide "kill", as in homocide, suicide, genocide. Chisel is another word borrowed from Old French cisiel, a reduction of spoken Late Latin cisellus "cutting tool", a diminutive of caesus, again, the past participle of caedere. (Now a note of gratitude to George Kovac of Miami, an unrecognized Grand Panjandrum of the Agora and Good Word contributor without caesura since 2010 for today's exotic Good Word.),
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George Kovac
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Re: Caesura

Postby George Kovac » Wed Nov 09, 2022 11:21 pm

I like the dreamy sound of “caesura” and of “lacuna” (the GoodWord of January 26, 2020), a word of related meaning: “gap, something missing.” Sure, both words can be dissed as too precious, obscure or academic. I can forgive those risks because the words have precise and useful meanings, but mostly because they sound beautiful, especially if you linger over the “u” in the second syllable.
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016

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Re: Caesura

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Nov 10, 2022 9:23 am

The musicians of the Agora thank you for today's Good Word. Caesura is one we use quite often, as it is part of our musical notation. The symbol for caesura (meaning "to pause") is a set of diagonal slash marks: // This also happens to be the symbol on the pause button on the remote controls of our electronic devices!

Dawn Amthor
HS Choir Director
Wallkill, NY
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