Accenter

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person or thing that places emphasis on a particular element, making it stand out more than the rest
2. Something that gives prominence or stress to a feature, drawing attention to it within a larger whole
3. One who or that which highlights a point, sound, or detail so that it becomes more noticeable

Etymology: In Latin, "accentor" meant a singer who joined in with another, a backing voice, formed from "ad," meaning "to," and "canere," meaning "to sing." Naturalists later borrowed the term as the name for a genus of small songbirds, so a plain brown bird ended up named for singing alongside someone else. The best-known member of that group is the hedge sparrow, also called the dunnock. "Accenter" is an English spelling of the same bird name, so the Latin sense of singing along carries straight through. The verb "accent" comes from the same Latin family, through a word for tone or song, which is why the two look related, though the bird name has nothing to do with stress.