Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A clitic that is attached to the end of another word. In Give 'em the works, the pronoun 'em is an enclitic.
- n. A clitic.
- adj. Of or relating to an enclitic or enclisis; forming an accentual unit with the preceding word.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Leaning on or against something else.
- Specifically.
- In grammar, subjoined and accentually dependent: said of a word or particle which in regard to accent forms a part of a preceding word and is treated as if one with it, or gives up its separate accent, sometimes affecting that of its predecessor.
- In obstetrics, opposed to synclitic (which see).
- n. In grammar, a word accentually connected with a preceding word, as que (and) in Latin: arma virumque, arms and the man.
Wiktionary
- n. linguistics A clitic which phonetically joins with the preceding word. In English, the possessive 's is an example.
- adj. grammar Affixed phonetically.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Gram.) Affixed; subjoined; -- said of a word or particle which leans back upon the preceding word so as to become a part of it, and to lose its own independent accent, generally varying also the accent of the preceding word.
- n. (Gram.) A word which is joined to another so closely as to lose its proper accent, as the pronoun
thee inprithee (pray thee).
Etymologies
- From Late Latin encliticus, from Ancient Greek ἐγκλιτικός (enklitikos, "inclined towards"), from ἐγκλίνειν (enklinein, "lean on"), from ἐν (en, "upon") + κλίνειν (klinein, "to lean, incline"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin encliticus, from Greek enklitikos, from enklīnein, to lean on : en-, on, in; see en-2 + klīnein, to lean; see klei- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The "enclitic" neatly encapsulates Mosses thesis about the relations between originary languages and vernaculars, between primary languages and stranger idioms, between literary languages and invading languages, with "mixed jargons" and a changed "mother idiom" as a result.”
“No. 51; accent from "enclitic," § 3. 55. vii, 20. 56.”
“However, an enclitic accusative demonstrative may still precede or follow an unmarked object and this is probably the most direct indication that accusative nouns are simply unmarked in that case.”
Contradictions with authors' accounts of Etruscan word Rasna
“NB: Avamshâm is avam "him" plus -shâm, which is a dative 3rd person plural enclitic pronoun.”
Contradictions with authors' accounts of Etruscan word Rasna
“A characteristic trait of Danish and the rest of the Nordic languages is the presence of the enclitic definite article.”
“MIE enclitic *mas regularly becomes *n̥s via Syncope, and was then later extended analogically as *nos by the time of PIE proper.”
“A lovely analogy of such a thing is found in my native language Dutch; which has variant forms of most pronouns though they're all enclitic to the verb”
“So, like I said already, primary stress accent in Mid IE was much like in Polish and fell on the penultimate syllable (second-from-last syllable) by default unless a suffix was derived from an Old IE agglutinated enclitic in which case the antepenultimate (third-from-last syllable) was chosen.”
“Antepenultimate accentuation only ever surfaces in words with enclitic extensions like *-sa and *-ta.”
“In fact, Latin had many words that are translated into English as or, including, besides the two listed, at least seu, sive and the enclitic ve.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘enclitic’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Prosody
Your terms and additions are welcome.
headless iamb, tailless trochee, dibrach, disyllable, trisyllable, tetrasyllable, pyrrhus, iamb, trochee, choree, choreus, tribrach and 203 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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art & linguistics
macron, isochrony, irrealis, isogloss, majuscule, preverb, prevocalic, tonogenesis, volitive, experiencer, enclitic, lithophane and 24 more...
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karnage's Words
furbelow, farinaceous, fendrake, rhizobium, imbricate, quaquaversal, exstasis, grapheme, scissiparity, apterous, obdurant, omphalos and 135 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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catching words
wicker(whichwill)work
collate, percolate, key, quay, hedge, haggard, haw, hawthorn, hawfinch, colander, couloir, coulee and 54 more...
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Literary Endeavors
acephalous, aidos, allegory, alliosis, alliteration, allusion, amphibrach, amphimacer, anadiplosis, anagnorisis, anaphora, anapest and 58 more...
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words about words
idioglossia, lexicon, parapraxis, colloquialism, synecdoche, metonymy, diaeresis, zeugma, mnemonic, amanuensis, anacoluthon, palindrome and 78 more...
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Wordology
linguistic contagion, neologism, onomatopoeic, wordology, verbivore, verbification, homonymous, sigla, wordiependancy, deixis, delectus, feminum and 11 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for enclitic.

jmjarmstrong JM is a severe critic of all instances of enclitic that just get'em wrong. Mar 28, 2011
johnmperry A clitic that follows its host Jun 21, 2008
Prolagus An Italian writer, Brunella Gasperini, wrote once about how exclaming "Jesus!" sounds so much more acceptable than "Christ!"... Jun 21, 2008
ofravens Because I am actually ten years old, this word sounds vaguely dirty. Jun 21, 2008