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/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

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.

Derived terms

• nonanadromous

 

Related terms

• crusis

Translations

(prosody) an unstressed syllable at the start of a verse

• Catalan: anacrusi f
• Finnish: esitahti, anakruusi (fi)
• French: anacrouse (fr) f
• German: Auftakt (de) m
• Italian: anacrusi (it) f
• Polish: anakruza f, przedtakt (pl) m
• Portuguese: anacruse (pt) f
• Russian: анакру́за (ru) f (anakrúza)

(music) an unstressed note (or notes) before the first strong beat of a phrase

• Catalan: anacrusi f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 弱起 (ruòqǐ)

• Dutch: opmaat (nl)
• Finnish: nousutahti (fi)
• French: anacrouse (fr) f
• German: Auftakt (de) m, Anakrusis (de) f
• Italian: anacrusi (it) f
• Polish: anakruza f, przedtakt (pl) m
• Portuguese: anacruse (pt) f
• Russian: зата́кт (ru) m (zatákt)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̏зма̄х m

  Roman: ȕzmāh (sh) m

• Spanish: anacrusa f
• Swedish: upptakt (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 弱起 (ja) (じゃっき, jakki)

Catalan

Noun

anacrusis

1. plural of anacrusi