Paroxytone (Greek: παροξύτονος, paroxýtonos) is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the second last syllable, such as the English word potáto, and just about all words ending in –ic such as músic, frántic, and phonétic; except for rhétoric, aríthmetic (noun) and Árabic. In Italian and Portuguese, most words have paroxytonic stress. In Polish, almost all words have paroxytonic stress, except for certain verb conjugations and a few words of foreign origin.
In medieval Latin lyric poetry, a paroxytonic line or half-line is one in which the penultimate syllable is stressed, as in the second half of the verse "Estuans intrinsecus || ira vehementi."
Related terms are proparoxytone (stress on the third last syllable) and oxytone (accented on the last syllable).
See also
- Barytone
- Oxytone
- Penult
- Perispomenon
- Preantepenult
- Proparoxytone
- Properispomenon
- Ultima (syllable)
- Stress (linguistics)
References