This week’s theme
Words from music

This week’s words
pitch-perfect
fanfare
downbeat
boogie
fiddle-faddle

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DAUN-beet)

MEANING:

noun:	1. The downward stroke of a conductor indicating the first or an accented beat of a measure.
	2. The first beat of a measure.
adjective:	1. Gloomy or pessimistic.
	2. Understated, muted, or restrained.

ETYMOLOGY:

From down, from Old English dun/dune, from adune (downward), from the phrase “of dune” (off the hill), from dun (hill) + beat, from Old English beatan. Earliest documented use: 1766.

NOTES:

There’s nothing pessimistic about the first beat of a measure, so why the metaphorical sense? The first beat of a measure is, in fact, usually accented. The metaphorical sense apparently arose from the association of “downbeat” with “beaten down”.

USAGE:

“My friend Josh was even more downbeat, concerned it would undo all of the progress I’d made over the last year.”
Lynne Raimondo; Dante’s Poison; Seventh Street Books; 2014.

See more usage examples of downbeat in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: