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  1. enclitic love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A clitic that is attached to the end of another word. In Give 'em the works, the pronoun 'em is an enclitic.
  2. n. A clitic.
  3. adj. Of or relating to an enclitic or enclisis; forming an accentual unit with the preceding word.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Leaning on or against something else.
  2. Specifically.
  3. 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.
  4. In obstetrics, opposed to synclitic (which see).
  5. n. In grammar, a word accentually connected with a preceding word, as que (and) in Latin: arma virumque, arms and the man.

Wiktionary

  1. n. linguistics A clitic which phonetically joins with the preceding word. In English, the possessive 's is an example.
  2. adj. grammar Affixed phonetically.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. 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.
  2. n. (Gram.) A word which is joined to another so closely as to lose its proper accent, as the pronoun thee in prithee (pray thee).

Etymologies

  1. 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)
  2. 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 Mosse’s 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.”

    A Teleology of Letters; or, From a

  • “No. 51; accent from "enclitic," § 3. 55. vii, 20. 56.”

    Greek in a Nutshell

  • “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.”

    Understanding Each Other in Different Languages

  • “MIE enclitic *mas regularly becomes *n̥s via Syncope, and was then later extended analogically as *nos by the time of PIE proper.”

    Archive 2008-10-01

  • “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”

    Back to business: emphatic particles and verbal extensions

  • “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.”

    Sporadic phonetic changes in the Indo-European case system

  • “Antepenultimate accentuation only ever surfaces in words with enclitic extensions like *-sa and *-ta.”

    Update of my "Diachrony of Pre-IE" document

  • “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.”

    Disjunction

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synonyms (2)

Words with the same meaning

  1. affixed
  1. subjoined

equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘enclitic’

  1. enclitical

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. avant
  2. s'agissait
  3. single-domain
  4. jeu
  1. 'il
  2. esprit
  3. chroniton
  4. dark-matter
  1. vidrion
  2. cause
  3. submicroscopic
  4. highenergy
  1. sub-atomic
  2. nucleosome
  3. pesar
  4. virus-like
  1. monodisperse
  2. ha
  3. superluminal
  4. magnetospheric

reverse dictionary (7)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. enclisis
  1. enclitical
  1. orthotone
  1. enclitically
  1. encliticism
  1. enclitic
  1. orthotonesis

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  1. language
  1. linguistics

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Lists

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘enclitic’ has been looked up 2459 times, loved by 2 people, added to 10 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.