gravo-acute accent

English

Etymology

gravo- +‎ acute + accent

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: grä'vōəkyo͞otʹ ăkʹsənt, IPA^(key): /ˌɡɹɑːvəʊəˈkjuːt ˈæksənt/

Noun

gravo-acute accent (plural not attested)

1. (phonology and typography, obsolete, rare) A dipping tone, or the diacritic that denotes it, similar in form to the breve (˘) and the háček (ˇ).
   • 1827, James Rush, The Philosophy of the Human Voice, pages ix–x:

     Mr. Walker does triumphantly claim the discovery of the inverted circumflex accent, or the downward and upward continued movement. Yet, if it is correctly inferred from the dates of publication, and from Mr. Walker’s rather derisive allusion to Mr. Steele’s essay, that the latter author preceded him, he might have found, in Mr. Steele’s gravo-acute accent, proof of the real existence of his newly found function of the voice.

   • 1841, Andrew Comstock, “Explanation of the characters used in the exercises in reading and declamation”, in A System of Elocution, page 200:

     ( ˘ ) Gravo-acute accent, or gravo-acute circumflex.