accentus

accentus (uncountable)

1. (logic) Ambiguity arising when the meaning of a sentence is changed by placing an unusual prosodic stress, or when, in a written passage, it is left unclear which word the emphasis was supposed to fall on.
2. (music) A style of church music that emphasizes spoken word.

   Coordinate term: concentus

From accinō (“sing to”), from ad- +‎ canō (“sing”), a calque of Ancient Greek προσῳδία (prosōidía, “song sung to music; pronunciation of syllable”), from πρός (prós, “to”) +‎ ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /akˈken.tus/, [äkˈkɛn̪t̪ʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /atˈt͡ʃen.tus/, [ätˈt͡ʃɛn̪t̪us]

accentus m (genitive accentūs); fourth declension

1. a blast, signal
2. (phonology) accent, tone, accentuation
3. (figuratively) intensity, violence

Fourth-declension noun.

• accentus acūtus
• accentus circumflexus
• accentus gravis

• accentor
• accinō

• “accentus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• accentus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• accentŭs in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 15/3.
• “accentus” on page 19 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)