anacrusis

English
WOTD – 1 January 2012

Etymology

Modern Latin, from Ancient Greek ἀνάκρουσις (anákrousis, “pushing up”), from ἀνακρούω (anakroúō, “I push up”), from ἀνά (aná, “up”) + κρούω (kroúō, “I strike”).

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /anəˈkɹuːsɪs/

Noun
Beginning of BWV 736, with an anacrusis shown in red.
Play(file)

anacrusis (plural anacruses)

  1. (prosody) An unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
  2. (music) An unstressed note or notes before the first strong beat (or downbeat) of a phrase.
    • 1989, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron:
      Then Etheridge poised his baton, jerked an upbeat, and made the violinists speak the low G and A of their anacrusis.
  • crusis

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Catalan

Noun

anacrusis

  1. plural of anacrusi
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