Hemidemisemiquaver

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Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Nov 02, 2013 9:17 pm

• hemidemisemiquaver •

Pronunciation: he-mi-de-mi-se-mi-kway-vêr • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. (Classical British terminology) A four-flagged musical note played for 1/64 of the duration of a whole note. It lasts half as long as a thirty-second note (or demisemiquaver) and a quarter as long as a sixteenth note (semiquaver). 2. An almost infinitesimally small amount.

Notes: This word is the kind of word musicians think up as they sit around discussing music and drinking late at night. I chose this word because it oddly reflects all the variants of the borrowed English prefixes for "half": hemi-, demi-, and semi-. I thought you might like to know why we have three of these little critters.

In Play: This long word might seem to belong to the music world: "Moseley, I think you are pausing a hemidemisemiquaver at the beginning of each bar, which puts you noticeably behind the other members of the orchestra by the end of the piece." However, the idea behind the word has caught on enough in England that hemidemisemi- is now a prefix referring to things exceptionally small: "I don't think that Germaine has so much as a hemidemisemi-idea of what this project is all about."

Word History: The bizarre load of prefixes meaning "half" at the beginning of this word reflects our borrowing variants of the same original word from several languages. Hemi- is a Greek form meaning "half." Semi- is the Latin correlate derived from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Demi- is an Old French reduction of Latin dimidius "split in two," made up of dis- "apart" + medius "half." English, of course, could not resist the temptation to help itself to them all.
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Hemisemidemiquaver

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Nov 03, 2013 1:23 am

Hemisemidemiquaver is a Good Word dear to my heart. I must admit I misspell it as hemidemisemiquaver on occasion. But the meaning is the same either way. When, as a child, I took music theory I fell for the word. Sometimes it rings in my ears as I go to sleep. I hope some of the Agora like as much as I do and it rings in your ears. Perhaps that would dampen it in my ears.
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Re: Hemisemidemiquaver

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sun Nov 03, 2013 12:48 pm

It's neat to have favorite words,
mine is flaucinaucinihilipilification.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Hemisemidemiquaver

Postby Slava » Sun Nov 03, 2013 2:28 pm

It's neat to have favorite words,
mine is flaucinaucinihilipilification.
Close, but it starts with "flocci-".

Here's the Doc's original treatment: http://www.alphadictionary.com/bb/viewt ... f=1&t=1075
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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Nov 03, 2013 3:25 pm

Antidisestablishmentarianism is also a pretty neat word. Since the question that occasioned the word is pretty much past, I suggest a newer word, postantidisestablishmentarianism, might deserve some currency. Or not.
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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby MTC » Mon Nov 04, 2013 5:44 am

Not to throw cold water on your sesquipedalean fever, but for the mathematically inclined, "hemidemisemiquaver" might have been written more succinctly as "1/2 exponent 6 quaver," combining words and mathematical notation. That would be a nice little monstrosity now, wouldn't it?

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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby Perry Lassiter » Mon Nov 04, 2013 3:16 pm

(1/2)6quaver, where the six is written half-size above the one half as an exponent?
pl

Philip Hudson
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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Nov 04, 2013 5:26 pm

Right Perry. You get the math prize for the day for understanding MTC notation. MTC gets an equal prize for posting it. It is sad that there is no easy way to keyboard mathematical notations. I keyboarded the expression using Microsoft Word. When I pasted it in the reply box it came out like this (½)6. The 6 just got bigger. No one gets a prize for puting mathematical notation on the Good Word discussion. Personally I like to say hemisemidemiquaver. Or is it hemidemisemiquaver?
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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby Audiendus » Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:24 pm

"hemidemisemiquaver" might have been written more succinctly as "1/2 exponent 6 quaver"
Actually, it's 1/2 exponent 3 quaver, or 1/2 exponent 6 semibreve. That is to say, 1/8 of a quaver, or 1/64 of a semibreve (whole note).
Personally I like to say hemisemidemiquaver. Or is it hemidemisemiquaver?
The latter.

There is also the 1/128th note or semihemidemisemiquaver, which has 5 hooks or (if joined together) 5 beams. It's very rare, but some examples can be found, e.g. in Beethoven's Pathétique piano sonata, which I occasionally play. :wink:

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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Nov 04, 2013 6:52 pm

Thanks for the clarification Audiendus. The naming convention starts with a whole note and divides by two from there. Don't forget the dotted notes. They aren't from a power of two.
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Re: Hemidemisemiquaver

Postby MTC » Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:41 pm

Words like "hemidemisemiquaver" and "semihemidemisemiquaver" come with a laugh and a smile. They skip down the road like a child at play, and challenge us to a game of one-up-manship. Can you add a prefix without causing the tower to collapse? Without giggling? "1/2 exponent 6 quaver," on the other hand, is joyless. There's no joie in the joie de vivre. But my little monstrosity did start me thinking about "words" which combine words and numbers, e.g., "1derful," "2some," "4ever," etc. Are they really "words," or something else?


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