ARSIS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Arsis

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noun

Arsis n.

(Pros.)

(a)

That part of a foot where the ictus is put, or which is distinguished from the rest (known as the thesis) of the foot by a greater stress of voice.

(b)

That elevation of voice now called metrical accentuation, or the rhythmic accent. Note: It is uncertain whether the arsis originally consisted in a higher musical tone, greater volume, or longer duration of sound, or in all combined.

(Mus.) The elevation of the hand, or that part of the bar at which it is raised, in beating time; the weak or unaccented part of the bar; opposed to thesis.

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Etymology of 'Arsis'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Arsis" Quotes from Famous Books

... poetry began with Chaucer, outrider to a king, associate with State affairs, participant in those turbulencies recorded in Froissart's voluble "Chronicles." He was a courtier. Camp and king's antechamber and embassage and battle made the arsis and thesis of his poetry, and his poems are a picture of Edward III's age, accurate as if a king's pageant passing flung shadow in a stream along whose bank it marched. Spenser was a recluse, looking on the world's movement as an Oriental woman watches ...

— A Hero and Some Other Folks • William A. Quayle

... speech; vote, choice, election, suffrage. Associated Words: phonology, phonetics, phonation, phonography, oral, vocal, non-vocal, aphonic, arsis, ...

— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming