macron

See also: macrón, mácron, and Macron

English

WOTD – 8 May 2017

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón), neuter form of μακρός (makrós, “long”) (English macro-).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: măkʹrŏn, mākʹrŏn, IPA^(key): /ˈmækɹɒn/, /ˈmeɪkɹɒn/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪkɹɑn/, /ˈmækɹɑn/
• Hyphenation: ma‧cron

Noun

Examples
Latin pōpulus (“poplar tree”, indicates vowel length) Mandarin chūzūchē (“taxi”, indicates first tone) Translingual p̄ (“antiproton”, indicates antimatter equivalent)

macron (plural macrons or macra)

1. (orthography) A short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark (◌̄) placed over a letter, usually to indicate that the pronunciation of a vowel is long. [from 19th c.]

   Antonyms: breve, micron

   Coordinate terms: solidus, vinculum

   Hypernym: bar

   • 1889, Rebecca S[mith] Pollard, A Complete Manual: Pollard’s Synthetic Method of Reading and Spelling. Designed to Accompany Synthetic Readers and Spellers, New York, N.Y.: American Book Company, OCLC 18708150, page 75:

     We say such words belong to a Long family, because of the long macron hat the vowels wear. Like the other twin o's, one hat is enough for both, for these twins are always found together.

   • 1974, Floyd L. Moreland & Rita M. Fleischer, Latin: An Intensive Course, University of California Press, page 13:

     A macron is a mark placed above a long vowel to mark its quantity.

   • 1986, Peter V. Jones; Keith C. Sidwell, “Introduction”, in Reading Latin, volume 1 (Grammar, Vocabulary and Exercises), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 2, general note 1:

     All vowels are pronounced short unless marked with a ¯ (macron) over them. So observe different vowel length of ‘i ’ in, e.g., fīlia, etc. It may be helpful, but is not essential, to mark macra in your exercises.

Usage notes

The plural macra is rare.

Related terms

• macro-

Translations

short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark

• Arabic: عَلَامَة اَلْمَدّ‎ f (ʿalāmat al-madd)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 長音符號, 长音符号 (chángyīn fúhào), 長音符 (zh), 长音符 (zh) (chángyīnfú)

• Czech: makron m
• Dutch: macron (nl) c
• Finnish: pituusmerkki (fi)
• French: macron (fr) m
• Galician: macrón m
• Georgian: მაკრონი (maḳroni), ხმოვნის ხანგრძლივობის ნიშანი (xmovnis xangrʒlivobis nišani), ხმოვნის სიგრძის აღმნიშვნელი ნიშანი (xmovnis sigrʒis aɣmnišvneli nišani)
• German: Längenstrich m, Längestrich m, Makron (de) n, Verlängerungszeichen n
• Greek:

  Ancient: (ἡ) μακρά (προσῳδία) f ((hē) makrá (prosōidía))

• Hawaiian: kahakō

• Hungarian: makron, hosszúságjel, (somewhat informal) vonal (hu)
• Icelandic: lengdarmerki n
• Irish: macran m, macrón m
• Italian: macron m
• Japanese: マクロン (makuron)
• Latin: signum productionis n
• Latvian: garumzīme f
• Lithuanian: brūkšnelis ?
• Maori: tohutō, pōtae, hahae
• Norwegian: makron n
• Persian: ماکرون‎ (mākron)
• Polish: makron m
• Portuguese: mácron m, macro (pt) m
• Russian: макро́н (ru) m (makrón)
• Spanish: macrón (es) m
• Swedish: streck (sv) n, makron (sv) n, längdstreck n
• Tahitian: tārava
• Tongan: toloi

Further reading

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “macron”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
• Macron (diacritic) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Camron, Carmon, Corman

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Dutch

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μακρόν (makrón), neuter form of μακρός (makrós, “long”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmaː.krɔn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

macron m (plural macrons, diminutive macrontje n)

1. (orthography) macron

Hypernyms

• diakriet

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French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.kʁɔ̃/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Noun

macron m (plural macrons)

1. macron

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Italian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek.

Noun

macron m (invariable)

1. macron