Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The last syllable but two of a word, as syl in monosyllable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun poetry The last syllable of a word except two; an antepenult.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin antepaenultima, antepenultima ("antepenultimate"; feminine gender, agreeing with syllaba ("syllable")).

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Examples

  • The French in his whole language hath not one word that hath his accent in the last syllable saving two, called antepenultima, and little more hath the Spanish; and therefore very gracelessly may they use dactyls.

    The Defense of Poesy 1909

  • The accent placed on the penultima of [Greek: Theophoros], as the word is written in the saint's acts, denotes it of an active signification, _one that carrieth God_; but of the passive, _carried of God_, if placed on the antepenultima.

    The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints January, February, March Alban Butler

  • In this example, the two last syllables have the assonance; although this is not invariable, it sometimes falling on the antepenultima and the final syllable.

    The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic — Volume 2 William Hickling Prescott 1827

  • If _ [Greek: ** anthropos] _ was to be pronounced in common conversation with a perceptible distinction of the length of the penultima as well as of the elevation of the antepenultima, why was not that long quantity also marked?

    Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1803

  • '' Ayavov, Cum accentu in antepenultima, fignificac liginim fraclum, aut aridum, vcl fragile.

    Suidae Lexicon, Græce & Latine 1705

  • _antepenultima_ as to say [_co-ue ` ra ` ble_] ye shall seldome or perchance neuer find one to make vp rime with him vnlesse it be badly and by abuse, and therefore in all such long _polisillables_ ye doe commonly giue two sharpe accents, and thereby reduce him into two feete as in this word

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • _antepenultima_ there reacheth no accent (which is chiefe cause of the cadence) vnlesse it be vsurpation in some English words, to which we giue

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • _antepenultima_ there was (among the Latines) none accent audible in any long word, therfore to deuise any foote of longer measure then of three times was to them but superfluous: because all aboue the number of three are but compounded of their inferiours.

    The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

  • Your feete of three times by prescription of the Latine Grammariens are of eight sundry proportions, for some notable difference appearing in euery sillable of three falling in a word of that size: but because aboue the antepenultima there was (among the Latines) none accent audible in any long word, therefore to deuise any foote of longer measure then of three times was to them but superfluous: because all aboue the number of three are but compounded of their inferiours.

    The Arte of English Poesie 1569

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