caesura

Alternative forms

• cæsura

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪˈzjʊəɹə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɪˈʒʊɹə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

caesura (plural caesuras or caesurae)

1. A pause or interruption in a poem, music, building, or other work of art.
2. (Classical prosody) Using two words to divide a metrical foot.
3. (typography) The caesura mark ‖ or ||.
4. (rarely) A break of an era or other measure of history and time; where one era ends and another begins.

See also

• enjambment
• hemistich

Etymology

From caedō (“I cut down, hew”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kae̯ˈsuː.ra/
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛˈsu.ra/, [t͡ʃɛˈsuː.ra]

Noun

caesūra f (genitive caesūrae); first declension

1. a cutting, felling, hewing down
2. a pause in a verse, caesura

References

• caesura in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• caesura in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• caesura in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette