Forms: 4–7 sillable, (4 silable, 5 sillabil, -byl, sylable, -bul, syllabylle, cyllable, 7 sillabell), 6– syllable. β. dial. 5, 9 sinnable, 9 synnable. [a. AF. sillable = OF. sillabe (12th c.), mod.F. syllabe, ad. L. syllaba, a. Gr. συλλαβή, f. συλλαμβάνειν to take, put, or bring together, f. σύν SYN- + λαμβάνειν (stem λαβ-) to take.]
1. A vocal sound or set of sounds uttered with a single effort of articulation and forming a word or an element of a word; each of the elements of spoken language comprising a sound of greater sonority (vowel or vowel-equivalent) with or without one or more sounds of less sonority (consonants or consonant-equivalents); also, a character or set of characters forming a corresponding element of written language.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 8. Though somme vers fayle in A sillable. Ibid. (c. 1385), Sqr.’s T., 93. After the forme vsed in his langage With outen vice of silable or of lettre.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 437. Ascanius was i-cleped Iulus … a name of tweie silables.
c. 1430. Stans Puer (Lamb. MS.), 98, in Babees Bk. (1868), 33. In þis writynge … Yf ouȝt be mys, in worde, sillable, or dede, I submitte me to correccioun withoute ony debate.
a. 1491. J. Rows, Roll, vii. (1859), B 3 b. The furst sinnable of hys naavm [sc. Arthgallus] that ys to seey Arth or Narthe is asmuch to sey in Walsh as a bere.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 158. Not clipping the syllables, nor skyppyng ony worde.
1555. Watreman, Fardle Facions, I. iv. 40. Yeat ware not their Letters facioned to ioyne together in sillables like ours.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 145. Our English tong, hauing in vse chiefly, wordes of one syllable.
1612. Brinsley, Posing Parts (1669), 90. When is a Noun said to increase? A. When it hath more syllables in the Genitive case, than in the Nominative.
a. 1711. Ken, Psyche, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 281. Return, Re—— in this Syllable she fail’d.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), I. 277. On the back ground the front of a castle with columns; on the bases of which are the syllables Es—sex.
1880. W. S. Rockstro, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 734/1. The sounds [of each hexachord] are sung … to the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, the semitone always falling between the syllables mi and fa.
1890. [see SYLLABIC B. 2].
1899. R. J. Lloyd, Northern English, § 105. Speech is a succesion of sounds continually rising and falling in sonority. Each single short wave of sonority, one rise and one fall, is a syllable. Ibid., § 107. The most sonorous phone of a syllable is its vowel: the rest are its consonants.
1908. Sweet, Sounds of English, § 150. The beginning of a syllable corresponds to the beginning of the stress with which it is uttered. Thus in atone the strong stress and the second syllable begin on the t, and in bookcase buk:keis on the second k.
b. Used pregnantly of a word of one syllable, or in reference to a part of a word, considered in relation to its significance.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 343. That o sillable [sc. nay] hath overthrowe A thousend wordes.
1577. Vautrouillier, Luther on Ep. Gal., 21. Learne this definition diligently, and especially so exercise this pronoune our, that this one sillable being beleeued, may swallow vp all thy sinnes.
1577. Harrison, England, II. v. (1877), I. 115. This syllable Sir, which is the title whereby we call our knights.
1603. Owen, Pembrokeshire (1892), 267. [The Fox and Marton] are desired onelye for the two last sillables of theire Carcases [i.e., ‘cases’ = skins].
1781. Cowper, Hope, 690. Those awful syllables, hell, death, and sin.
1795. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 397. What can make us in love with oppression because the syllables ‘Jacobin’ are not put before the ‘ism’?
2. The least portion or detail of speech or writing (or of something expressed or expressible in speech or writing): the least mention, hint, or trace of something: esp. in negative context.
1434. Misyn, Mending Life, 118. All our prayer with desire and effect sal be, so þat we ouer rynne not þe wordis, bot nerehand all sillabyls with grete cry & desire we sal offyr to owr lorde.
1533. More, Apol., 8 b. Of all theyr owne wordes I leue not one syllable out.
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, Cc iv. One sillable of thine shall more perswade mee, then the sage sentences of anye other.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. ii. 5. I heard, Each syllable that breath made vp betweene them. Ibid. (1605), Macb., V. v. 21. To the last Syllable of Recorded time.
1637. Atterbury, Answ. Consid. Spirit Luther, 47. To this there’s not a syllable of proof offer’d.
1768. Goldsm., Goodn. Man, II. i. I know every syllable of the matter.
1771. Smollett, Humphry Cl., Let. to Lewis, 2 April. Don’t say a syllable of the matter to any living soul.
1801. Colman, Poor Gentl., III. i. 34. There isn’t a syllable of sense in all you have been saying.
1876. Green, Stray Stud., 189. The name of Dante is mentioned but once, and then without a syllable of comment.
1885. D. C. Murray, Rainbow Gold, II. iii. I ain’t a-going to breathe a synnable nayther.
† b. pl. Minute details of language or statement; exact or precise words. Obs.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxviii. § 2. Our imitation of him consisteth not in tying scrupulously our selues vnto his sillables.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., II. i. 173. Whose syllables I the rather cite, because … he iustifies himself out of the Instrument of that Donation, which, by his assertion, he made vse of.
† 3. With reference to the etymological sense: A composite thing, a compound. Obs. nonce-use.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 849. Life and Understanding are no Syllables or Complexions,… nor can either the Qualities of Heat and Cold, Moist and Dry; or else Magnitudes, Figures, Sites, and Motions, however Combined together, as Letters Spell them out, and make them up.
4. attrib. and Comb., as syllable-division, etc.; syllable-monger (nonce-wd.), one who makes verses (regarded merely as an orderly arrangement of syllables).
1784. Cowper, Lett. to W. Unwin, 5 April. As my two syllablemongers, Beattie and Blair, both agree that language was originally inspired [etc.].
1888. Sweet, Hist. Engl. Sounds, § 19. It is possible to alter the syllable division by shifting the stress from one element to another. Ibid. (1890), Primer Phonetics, § 150. Syllable-formers [see SYLLABIC B. 2].
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., Syllable-stumbling, a form of paralytic dysphasia in which there is difficulty in speaking a word as a whole, although each letter and syllable can be distinctly sounded.
