Dissyllabos

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Words or metrical units made up of exactly two syllables, such as the English word 'hyphen'
2. Two-syllable words or poetic feet, each containing a pair of syllables in a single unit of sound
3. Terms of two syllables, or the two-syllable metrical feet used in verse, each built from a pair of syllables

Etymology: "Dissyllabos" is the Latinized form of the Greek "disyllabos," from "dis," meaning "twice" or "two," and "syllabē," meaning "syllable." The Greek adjective "disyllabos" described a word of two syllables, and in English the noun "dissyllable" and its variant "dissyllabos" (with the Greek ending) were used in grammar and prosody to name such words. The form with the -os ending is a direct Greek-style spelling carried into English, which is why it looks more classical than the commoner "dissyllable." The pattern is shared by a family of terms: "monosyllable" (one syllable), "trisyllable" (three), and "polysyllable" (many). These were all formed from Greek numerals plus "syllabē," which itself came from "syllambanein," meaning "to gather together" or "to take together," a sense reflecting how separate sounds were grouped into a single unit. The word entered English in the early modern period, when scholars were freely borrowing Greek technical vocabulary for the study of language and verse.

Synonyms: disyllable

Antonyms: monosyllable, polysyllable