caesura

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caesura

  • /sɪˈzjʊəɹə/ UK
  • /səˈʒʊɹə/ US

Rhymes with -ʊəɹə

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd-

Proto-Indo-European *-eti

Proto-Indo-European *kh₂éydeti

Proto-Italic *kaidō

Latin caedō

Proto-Indo-European *-tew-?

Proto-Indo-European *-r-eh₂?

Latin -tūra

Latin caesūra

English caesura

Latin caesūra (“cutting, hewing”), from caesus, perfect passive participle of caedō (“to cut down, hew”).

noun caesuras · caesurae · cesura · cæsura

  1. rhetoric A pause or interruption in a poem, music, building, or other work of art. The caesura is meant to fall not with the comma after difficult, but after thou; and there is a most effective and grand suspension intended. It is Satan who speaks— Satan in the wilderness; and he marks, as he wishes to mark, the tremendous opposition of attitude between the two parties to the temp
  2. Classical Using two words to divide a metrical foot.
  3. The caesura mark ‖ or ||.
  4. rare A break of an era or other measure of history and time; where one era ends and another begins; turning point. Like the knocking at the door in Macbeth, or the cry of the watchman in the Tour de Nesle, they show that the horrible cæsura is over and the nightmares have fled away, because the day is breaking and the ordinary life of men is beginning to bestir itself among the streets.

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