onset
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From on- + set. Compare Old English onsettan (“to impose; oppress, bear down”).
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɒnˌsɛt/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈɔnˌsɛt/
- (US, cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ˈɑnˌsɛt/
Audio (UK) (file)
NounEdit
onset (plural onsets)
- (archaic) An attack; an assault especially of an army.
- Synonym: storming
- c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:
- Heralds, from off our towers, we might behold
From first to last, the onset and retire
Of both your armies
- 1800, William Wordsworth, Six thousand Veterans
- Who on that day the word of onset gave.
- (medicine) The initial phase of a disease or condition, in which symptoms first become apparent.
- the onset of schizophrenia
- (phonology) The initial portion of a syllable, preceding the syllable nucleus.
- (acoustics) The beginning of a musical note or other sound, in which the amplitude rises from zero to an initial peak.
- A setting about; a beginning.
- Synonyms: start, beginning; see also Thesaurus:beginning
- the onset of puberty
- 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Delays
- There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things.
- 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
- Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
- (obsolete) Anything added, such as an ornament or as a useful appendage.
- 1592, William Shakespeare , Titus Andronicus, Act 1, Scene 1
- And will with deeds requite thy gentleness:
- And, for an onset, Titus, to advance
- Thy name and honourable family,
- Lavinia will I make my empress.
- 1592, William Shakespeare , Titus Andronicus, Act 1, Scene 1
TranslationsEdit
rushing or setting upon
medicine: initial phase of a disease or condition
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phonology: initial portion of a syllable
VerbEdit
onset (third-person singular simple present onsets, present participle onsetting, simple past and past participle onset)
ReferencesEdit
- onset in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.