antiphon

English

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Antiphon

From French antiphone or Medieval Latin antiphōna, from Ancient Greek ἀντίφωνα (antiphōna, “responses, musical accords”), neuter plural substantive of ἀντίφωνος (antiphōnos, “concordant”) from ἀντί (anti, “in return”) + φωνή (phonē, “sound”). Compare anthem.

antiphon (plural antiphons)

A devotional piece of music sung responsively.
A response or reply.
- 2007, Barbara Everett, ‘Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances’, in the London Review of Books 29:6, page 20:
  The Clown […] says: ‘And so we wept; and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed’; to which his father, the Shepherd, adds the comfortable antiphon, ‘We may live, son, to shed many more.’

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