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    The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for April 23, 1999
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               dieresis / diaeresis [n.  dy-AIR-ih-sis]

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A dieresis is a special mark (two small dots) that is placed over the
second of two vowels in a word to show that the vowel is pronounced
separately.  It may look like a German umlaut, but it's not the same.
You may have seen it over the "e" of "noel" and over the "i" of
"naive." A dieresis can also be used to show that a vowel is not
silent, as in the "e" of "Bronte." The basic character set used in
this article does not allow us to show these diereses in position.

A dieresis can also be a short pause in a line of poetic verse that
happens when the end of a word and the end of a metric foot come at
the same moment.

The meaning has to do with a break or separation.  The original root
is Greek diairein (to divide), from dia- (apart) and hairein (to
take).  Although the Greek prefic dia- usually means "through" or
"across," there are some words where it means "apart."

Here are more "apart" words:

diagnosis: analysis, evaluation, or conclusion ("knowing apart")
diacritical: making a distinction, able to distinguish ("separating
apart")
dialysis: separating molecules in a solution ("loosening apart")


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