Antiphon
WordNet

noun


(1)   A verse or song to be chanted or sung in response
WiktionaryText

Etymology


From French antiphone or mediaeval Latin antiphona, from Greek ἀντίφωνα ‘responses, musical accords’, from ἀντί ‘in return’ + -φωνος ‘sounding’, from φωνή ‘vocal noise’. Compare anthem.

Noun



  1. A devotional piece of music sung responsively.
  2. A response or reply.
    • 2007: The Clown [...] says: ‘And so we wept; and there was the first gentleman-like tears that ever we shed’; to which his father, the Shepherd, adds the comfortable antiphon, ‘We may live, son, to shed many more.’ — Barbara Everett, ‘Making and Breaking in Shakespeare's Romances’, London Review of Books 29:6, p. 20
 
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