This week’s theme
Misleading words

This week’s words
cantrip
maladdress
asportation
epicrisis
oxytone


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1097

Next week’s theme
Skunk words (words to avoid)

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(OK-si-tohn)

MEANING:

adjective: Having stress on the last syllable.
noun: A word having stress on the last syllable.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek oxys (acute) + tonos (tone). Earliest documented use: 1720.

NOTES:

As you can see from its pronunciation, oxytone is a do-as-I-say kind of word, not do-as-I-do. Once you have mastered oxytone, here are some advanced members of this family:
paroxytone: the second to last syllable stressed
proparoxytone: third from last syllable stressed

As a proper name, Oxytone can be a music pedal, vent, steroid, intestinal cleanser, hair bleacher, and a book. Will the real oxytone stand up?

If you’re fond of stress on the last syllable and feel like making oxytone at home, here’s the chemical reaction that should work, though we haven’t tried it ourselves: oxygen + acetone = oxytone + acegen
The byproduct acegen is believed to be a pain reliever.

USAGE:

“What a lot our language misses by the clipped and oxytone ‘lament’!”
Egerton Castle & Agnes Castle; A Little House in War Time; Good Press; 2022.

See more usage examples of oxytone in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: