syllabify
Pronunciation Verb
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Pronunciation Verb
syllabify (syllabifies, present participle syllabifying; past and past participle syllabified)
- To divide a word into syllables; to syllabicate; to syllabize.
- 1799–1800, P.V. Lenoir, either “French Pronunciation and Reading made Eaſy, or the Logographic-emblematical French Spelling-Book, &c. ↗” (1799, Dulau and Co.) or “The Logographic-emblematical Engliſh Spelling-Book, or a Method of teaching Children to read ↗” (1800, Booſey), quoted in article 35–36 of The British Critic, volume 19 (1802, January–June), page 97 ↗
- A method alſo of teaching the learners “to ſyllabify with the counters” is pointed out.
- 1926, Henry Watson Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1st ed., Oxford at the Clarendon Press), page 590, column 2, “syllabize &c.”
- syllabize &c. A verb & a noun are clearly sometimes needed for the notion of dividing words into syllables. The possible pairs seem to be the following (the number after each word means — 1, that it is in fairly common use; 2, that it is on record; 3, that it is not given in OED): —
syllabate 3 syllabation 2
syllabicate 2 syllabication 1
syllabify 2 syllabification 1
syllabize 1 syllabization 3
One first-class verb, two first-class nouns, but neither of those nouns belonging to that verb. It is absurd enough, & any of several ways out would do; that indeed is why none of them is taken. The best thing would be to accept the most recognized verb syllabize, give it the now non-existent noun syllabization, & relegate all the rest to the Superfluous words; but there is no authority both willing & able to issue such decrees.
- syllabize &c. A verb & a noun are clearly sometimes needed for the notion of dividing words into syllables. The possible pairs seem to be the following (the number after each word means — 1, that it is in fairly common use; 2, that it is on record; 3, that it is not given in OED): —
- 1799–1800, P.V. Lenoir, either “French Pronunciation and Reading made Eaſy, or the Logographic-emblematical French Spelling-Book, &c. ↗” (1799, Dulau and Co.) or “The Logographic-emblematical Engliſh Spelling-Book, or a Method of teaching Children to read ↗” (1800, Booſey), quoted in article 35–36 of The British Critic, volume 19 (1802, January–June), page 97 ↗
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003