ACA

JJ559. Fite 73, f3r 77, fall 83, Iat81—me 93,

An assembly or society of men, uniting for thepromotion of some art; the place where sci-ences are taught; a place of education, incontradistinction to the universities or pub-lic schools.

Dr. Johnson tolls us, that this word was an-ciently ami properly accented on the fust syllable,though now frequently on the second. That it wasaccented on the first syllable till within these fewyears, is pretty generally remembered ; and if Shake­ speare did not, by poetical license, violate the accen-tuation of Jii.s time, it was certainly pi onounced sotwo centuries ago, as appears by Dr. Johnson’s quota-tion of him :

Our couvt shall be a little academy,

“ Still and contemplative in living arts."

Leva's Labour's Lost.

And in Ben Jonson ’s New Inn we find the same ac-centuation :

- “ Every house became

" An academy of honour, and those parts

" We see departed.*’-—

But the accentuation of this word formerly, on thefirst syllable, is so generally acknowledged, as not tostand in need of poetic authority. The question is,whether this accentuation, or that which places thestress on tiie second syllable, is the most proper t Towave, therefore, the authoiity of custom, which pre-cludes all reasoning on language, and reduces the dis-pute to a mere mutter of fact, it may be presumed,that whatever is agreeable to the most general usage ofthe language in similar words, is tiie most proper inthis; and if it appeals that general usage, in similarwords, is in favour of ilie old pronunciation, it mustcertainly, for that reason, be allowed to be the best.And first if may be observed, Ib't as our language isalmost as averse to the accent on the last syllable asthe Latin , it is a general custom with us, when weadopt a word from the Latin , and abridge it of one ortwo of its syllables, to remove the accent at least asyllable higher than it was in the original language,that tlie accent, when the word is naturalized, ni.iynot rest on the last. Tims, of Homtrns wc mane //o'-vim", of yirgi'/ivs, Vi'rgil\ and of Hora'tius, Horace:Hyaci'nthui, altered to Hyacinth, removes the ac-cent two syllables higher; and carremo’ma, becomeciremony, does the same ; and no law, that I know of,

J forbids us to accent academia , or if you will AxaStyxtct,when turned into academy, on the fust syllable, as itwas constantly accented by our ancestors, who, re-ceiving Greek through the medium of Latin , generally

f rronounced Greek words according to the Latin ana*ogy, and therefore necessarily placed the accent ofacademia on the third syllable, which, when reducedto academy, required the accent to be removedhigher.

But how, it will be said, docs this account forplacing the accent on the first syllable of the English word academy, rather than the second? To this itmay be answered, that the numberless instanci s ofpreference given by the accent to the first syllable insimilar words, such as melancholy , parsimony, dila-tory, &c. might be a sufficient authority without anyother reason. But perhaps it will be pardonedme if 1go farther, and hazard a supposition that seems to ac-count for the very common practice of placing theaccent of so many of the longer polysyllables fromthe Latin on the first or second syllable. Though inthe Latin there never was more than one accent upona word, yet, in our pronunciation of Latin , we com-monly place an accent on alternate syllables, as inour own words; and when the Latin word, by beinganglicised, becomes shorter, the alternate accent be-comes (he principal. 'J ims, in pronouncing the Latin word academia , the English natural y place an ac-cent on the first and third syllable, as if divided intou’c-a-di-mi-a ; so that when the word becomes angli-cised into a'c-a dc-my, the first syllable retains the ac-cent it had when the word was Latin . On the otherhand, it may be conjectured,with come probability,that a fondness for pronouncing like the French hasbeen the occasion of the alteration. . A« t.h* English ever suppose the French place tin* accent on the lastsyllable, in endeavouring to pronounce this word after

ACC

m£t95—pine 105, pin 107—lG2,m8ve IC4,

their maimer, the stress must naturally fall on thesecond and last syllables, as if divided into u-ca'd-amie ; and from an imitation of this, it is probable, t icpresent pronunciation of the word was produced.Thus we have a very probable reason why so manyof our longer words fiom the L-din are accented sonear the beginning; as, in this inode of pronouncing'them, they seem to retain one of the accent.* of theoriginal, lienee the long train of wo (Is, voluntary,comparable, disputable, admirable, Ace. have the ac-cent on the lir-t syllable ; because, m pronouncing tiiewords voluntarius, comparabills, aisyutabllis, tulmirabilis, &c. we commonly lay a stress upon thefirst, as well as the third syllable. As to the analogy,as Mr. .Sheridan pretends, of pronouncing this woitlwith the accent on the second syllable, because wordsending in my have the accent on the atifbpenultiiiiute,nothing can be more ill founded. True it is, thatwords of this termination never have the accent onthe penultimate; but that, for tiiis reason, they mustnecessarily have the accent on the antepenultimate, Lcannot well comprehend. If polygamy, economy,astronomy, &C. 513, have their accent on the ante-penultimate, it arises from the natuie of the termina-tions ; which being, as it were, a species, and appli-cable to a thousand other words, have v like logy andgrapky, the accent always ou the preceding syllable ;which seems best to unite the compound into oneword: but academtf being a simple, is subject lo nosuch rule, and seems naturally to incline to a differentanalogy of pronunciation. Thus Dr. Johnson seemsto have decided justly in saving tin: word academyought to have the accent on the first syllable; thoughpresent usage, it must be confessed, seems to lead tothe contrary pronuncimion.

ACANTHUS, fl-ktln thus, s. 470. Theherb benrs-font.

ACATALECTIC, d-ldt-tl-I&c'tlk, A

verse which has the complete number of syl-lables.

To ACCEDE, tilt-side', v. n. To be addedto, to come to.

To ACCELERATE, uk-sel'luv-ate, v. n. Tomake quick, to hasten, to quicken motion.ACCELERATION, uk-sel-lur-;i shtin, s.The act of quickening motion ; the state ofthe body accelerated. 555.

To ACCEN1), iik-send, t;. a . To kindle, toset on tire.

ACCENSION, ak-sen'shun, s. The act ofkindlintr, or the state of beinp kindled.ACCENT, ilk sent, .v. 480. The manner ofspeaking or pronouncing; the marks madeupon syllables to regulate their pronunciation ;a modification of the voice, expressive of thepassions or sentiments.

To ACCENT, ak-sent', v. a. 492. To pro-nounce, to speak words with paiticular regardto the grammatical marks or rules; to wiite ornote the accents.

ACCENTUAL, ilk-sen'tslni4], a. Relatingto accents. 4(io.

This word is in no I’.nglish Dictionary I havemet with ; but, conceiving its formation to be perfect-ly agreeable to the analogy of English adjectives, andfinding it used by several very respectable authors, Ihave ventmed to inset t it. Mr. Foster, in his Essayou Accent and (Quantity, says, “ When a high notesucceeds a low otic, or rites above the grave tone ofvoice, die perception of it is sadden and instantaneous,before the continuance of the note is determined oneway or the other tor long or short. Ttils I moreclearly conceive than 1 can perhaps express 1 canhowever engage to make it perceptible to a commonEnglish ear in any Greek wmd, according to its pre-sent accentual marl-.** And Dr. Galley, in his Dis-sertation against Gi e* k Accents, makes u»e of the sameword, where lie sajs, “ For if nOSill means, according to Mr. Foster, that oratorical or common dis-course differs from music only in the number of