emphasis (2009-10-12)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['em-fê-sis]

Definition: (1) Accent, stress, the mark of the syllable pronounced slightly louder and longer than other syllables in a word; (2) special focus or attention in a written or spoken text, as a paper on economics with emphasis on outsourcing.

Usage: The accent mark alone can make the difference between words in English, making it the equivalent of a suffix or prefix. Anything you re'ject is a 'reject, just as anything you state is a statement. Moving the accent has the same effect as adding the suffix –ment. English has lots of these pairs: if you re'write a paper the result is a 'rewrite, that which you in'sert is an 'insert, and if you sur'vey a plot of land, the result is a 'survey. We often confuse the two and use the noun as the verb, so be careful when you use these verb-noun pairs. The accent is always on the first syllable of the noun and the second syllable of the verb.

Suggested Usage: The symbol of syllabic emphasis is an accent mark [ ' ]. It resembles a single quote, but the single quote is usually curly, while the accent mark is straight. Like all English words ending on –is borrowed from Latin ("basis : bases," "thesis : theses," "crisis : crises"), the plural of today's word is "emphases" ['em-fê-sees]. The adjective is "emphatic" [em-'fæ-tik].

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin emphasis "implied meaning" from Greek "emphasis" with the same sense. If we were to say, "Loren Norder only accepts payments in cash," the Latin-Greek emphasis is that he is probably not paying taxes. The Greek noun comes from emphainein "to exhibit, display." It comprises en- "in" + phainein "to show." The verbs root derives from pre-Greek *bha- "to shine," which also underlies the phos, phot- "light" hiding in our "phosphorus" and "photography"—literally, light-writing. It also turned up in Greek theophany "an appearance of God" which French wore down to "tiphanie" and we then honed into tiffany "thin, translucent gauze," now also a distinguished surname.