arsis

American  

[ahr-sis] / ˈɑr sɪs /

noun

• arses
  plural

1. Music. the upward stroke in conducting; upbeat.

2. Prosody.

   1. the part of a metrical foot that bears the ictus or stress.

   2. (less commonly) a part of a metrical foot that does not bear the ictus.

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arsis British  

/ ˈɑːsɪs /

noun

1. (in classical prosody) the long syllable or part on which the ictus falls in a metrical foot Compare thesis

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• arses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of arsis

1350–1400; Middle English: raising the voice < Latin < Greek, equivalent to ar- (stem of aírein to raise, lift) + -sis -sis

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

arsis arses

“And yēt,” is a complete iambus; but anyet is, like spirit, a dibrach u u, trocheized, however, by the arsis or first accent damping, though not extinguishing, the second.

From Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The syllable which receives the ictus is called the thesis; the rest of the foot is called the arsis.

From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett

"With arsis monosyllabic, the strong tendency is to make the thesis short."

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden

The hiatus is commonest in monosyllabic words, or words ending in a short syllable followed by m, making the first syllable of an arsis resolved into two shorts.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by George Middleton

The most important feature of both sequences is the swing from a glacial to an inter-glacial epoch or from the arsis or accentuated part of an historical pulsation to the thesis or unaccented part.

From Climatic Changes Their Nature and Causes by Ellsworth Huntington

"There is no shortage of the corporate manoeuverings, jockeyings for position, eyes on chances and arses being covered that we have come to expect of America's most monstrous family company," she went on.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2021

They’d busted their arses for their kid to go to a grammar school – and to see it from their perspective, the arts were not a way for black people to survive.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 22, 2020

It was he who judged the days after Jade Goody's death to be the perfect moment to brand her "ignorant" and "puerile" and just another one of those "poor benighted people making arses of themselves".

From The Guardian ● Oct. 14, 2010

Before, I've just gone in like the cavalry, saving famous people's arses.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 5, 2010

My uncle Pa Keating said Irish dancers look like they have steel rods up their arses, but I can’t say that to Mam, she’d kill me.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt

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