Entertainment / Literature Glossary

Action: A real or fictional event or series of such events comprising the subject of a novel, story, narrative poem, or a play, especially in the sense of what the characters do in such a narrative. . . . View Full Definition

Acute Accent: A diacritical mark indicating primary stress.

Additive Monster: In contrast with the composite monster, mythologists and folklorists use the label additive monster to describe a creature from mythology or legend that has an altered number of body parts r . . . View Full Definition

Adekah: The adekah is a section of Genesis including Genesis 22:1-19, of foundational importance in the three Abrahamic traditions of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

Advanced Pronunciation: In linguistics, John Algeo defines this as an early instance of a historical sound change in progress (311). This is the opposite of a retarded pronunciation, in which an older pronunciation . . . View Full Definition

Adventure Novel: Any novel in which exciting events and fast paced actions are more important than character development, theme, or symbolism. Examples include Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo and . . . View Full Definition

Aesc: (also called ash in Anglo-Saxon) A letter in the Old Norse runic alphabet indicating the sound /æ/ as in the word . Aesc lends its name to the letter ash commonly used in Anglo-Saxon ma . . . View Full Definition

Aesthetic Distance: An effect of tone, diction, and presentation in poetry creating a sense of an experience removed from irrelevant or accidental events. This sense of intentional focus seems intentionally org . . . View Full Definition

Affix: James Algeo defines an affix as 'a morpheme added to a baseor stem to modify its meaning' (311). If an affix is attached to the beginning of a stem (or base word), the affix is called a pref . . . View Full Definition

Affixation: Making words by adding an affix to a previously existing base word or stem. For instance, the affix -ly can be added to the base word (or stem) quick to create the word quickly. This process . . . View Full Definition

Affricative: A sound stop with a fricative release. Affricatives involve a stop plus a movment through a fricative position (i.e., the blade of the tongue initially moves up in the position of a stop, bu . . . View Full Definition

Afro-Asiatic: A family of languages separate from Indo-European languages. The two main branches of Afro-Asiatic are Hamitic and Semitic. Other examples of non-Indo-European languages can be found elsewhe . . . View Full Definition

Agglutinative: (from Latin, 'glued to') In a now outdated linguistic classification, an agglutinative language was any language with complicated but (for the most part) regular derivational forms (Algeo 31 . . . View Full Definition

Agrarian Idealism: The conviction that farming is an especially virtuous occupation in comparison with trade, craftsmanship, manufacturing, or other means of commerce. Romans like Hesiod and Virgil, for instan . . . View Full Definition

Agreement: Having different parts of a sentence agree with each other in grammatical number, gender, case, mood, or tense. In British grammar books, agreement is also called concord.

Aided: (pluralaideda): A tale in prose or mixed prose and poetry in which a hero, poet, or ruler suffers a violent death, often occurring at a liminal time or place such as the Samhain festival or . . . View Full Definition

Aidos: The Greek term for the great shame felt by a hero after failure.

Alazon: A stock character in Greek drama, the alazon is a stupid braggart who is easily tricked by the clever eiron who tells the alazon what he wants to hear.

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