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 (UK) (file)

Noun

Beginning of BWV 736, with an anacrusis shown in red.

Play

(file)

anacrusis (plural anacruses)

(prosody) An unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
(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.

Related terms

crusis

Translations

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

Catalan: anacrusi f
Finnish: esitahti, anakruusi (fi)
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

plural of anacrusi