Alphadictionary.com

encore

Printable Version
Pronunciation: ahn-kor Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, interjection

Meaning: 1. (Noun) A piece played after the end of a concert at the shouted request of an audience in the midst of a standing ovation. 2. (Interjection) More! The word shouted by a delighted audience at the end of a musical performance when it wants to hear an additional piece.

Notes: When applause isn't enough, even a standing ovation, the audience at a concert may shout, "Encore!", in order to get the musicians to play another piece beyond the pieces in the program. If the musicians agree, the piece they play is called an encore, too. It may still be used as a verb meaning "to call for an encore".

In Play: The noun refers to an additional piece of music played for an enthusiastic audience after the end of the regular program: "After two encores the audience was left wanting more." The same noun is used as an interjection: "Once everyone departed, Louise was the only one left shouting, 'Encore! Encore!'"

Word History: Today's Good Word was wrenched from French encore "again", probably a reduction of some Vulgar (street) Latin phrase like 'hinc ad horam' "from that to this hour", made up of hinc "from here" (hic "this") + ad "(up) to" horam, the accusative case of hora "hour". Old French inherited hora, refashioning it into hore before English jiggled it into hour. Latin borrowed its word from Greek hora, a word referring to a period of time smaller than a year. Greek inherited its word form PIE yer-/yor- "year, season", source also of English year, German Jahr, Dutch jaar, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish år—all meaning "year". Among the Slavic languages we find Czech jaro "spring" and Serbian regional jarni "spring (planting)" from the same PIE source. (Now an "Encore!" to Barbara Beeton, a superactive Agoran, for all her excellent suggestions like today's remarkable Good Word.)

Dr. Goodword, alphaDictionary.com

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