Fwd: "trope, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

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Your word for today is: trope, n.

trope, n.
[‘ Rhetoric. A figure of speech which consists in the use of a word or
phrase in a sense other than that which is proper to it. Hence (more
generally): a figure of speech; (an instance of) figurative or
metaphorical language.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /trəʊp/,  U.S. /troʊp/
Forms: α.   OE tropes genitive,   15 troope,   15– trope,   16–17
trop.  β.  (In sense 4)  17– tropus.
Etymology:Probably partly < (i) classical Latin tropus figure of
speech, in post-classical Latin also chant, melody (6th cent.),
phrase, sentence, or verse, usually sung, used as an embellishment to
mass or divine office (frequently from 11th cent. in British and
continental sources),

and its etymon (ii) ancient Greek τρόπος turn, way, manner, (in music)
particular mode, also, more generally, style, (in speaking or writing)
manner, style, in Hellenistic Greek also (in rhetoric, in plural)
tropes, (in logic) mode or mood of a syllogism, method of instruction
or explanation < an ablaut variant (o-grade) of the base of τρέπειν to
turn (see below),

and partly (compare sense 8) < (iii) classical Latin tropa solstice
(attested in an inscription; also mid 16th cent. in post-classical
Latin),

and its etymon (iv) ancient Greek τροπή turn, turning, solstice < an
ablaut variant (o-grade) of the base of τρέπειν to turn < the same
Indo-European base as Sanskrit trap- (in trapate he feels ashamed,
becomes timid, more commonly in prefixed form apatrapate, probably
originally in sense ‘turns away (in shame)’; compare (with different
prefix) ancient Greek ἐντρέπεσθαι to be ashamed).
Compare Middle French, French trope figure of speech (1554; c1375 as
tropus), Catalan trop (1596), Spanish tropo (a1440), Portuguese tropo
(15th cent.), Italian tropo (a1375, earliest in sense ‘translation’).

In sense 4 after German Tropus (1745 or earlier in this sense, in a
work by Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian Brethren).

 The word was reborrowed in the 16th cent.; there is no continuity of
use with Old English. Compare also the following early use of the
Latin word (in sense 1a) in an English context:
OE  Ælfric Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 295 Sume sind gehatene tropi, þæt
sind mislice getacnunga oððe wisan on ledenspræce abrodene of heora
agenre getacnunge to oðre gelicnysse.
 I.  A particular manner or mode.
 1.
 a.  Rhetoric. A figure of speech which consists in the use of a word
or phrase in a sense other than that which is proper to it. Hence
(more generally): a figure of speech; (an instance of) figurative or
metaphorical language.
In quot. OE app. as a mass noun.
OE  tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Otho) v. Concl. 484 Boc de metrica arte, &
oþere to þisse geþydde be scematibus & tropes boc [OE Cambr. Univ.
Libr. tropus boc].

1533  Tyndale Souper of Lorde C v, If ye be so sworne to the litteral
sense in this matter, that ye will not in these wordes of Christe,
Thys is my bodye, &c., admitte in so playne a speache anye troope.
1570  T. Tusser Hundreth Good Pointes Husbandry (new ed.) f. 13v,
Christmas is onely a figure or trope.
a1638  J. Mede Wks. (1672) 349 That usual Trope of Scripture, by a
part, or that which is more notable or obvious in any kind or rank of
things, to imply the rest.
1693  Dryden Disc. conc. Satire in  tr. Juvenal Satires p. xxxii,
Where the Trope is far fetch'd, and hard, 'tis fit for nothing but to
puzzle the Understanding.
1723  W. Meston Knight i. 24 For every sentence he would prop, With
some Metonymie or Trope.
1781  R. B. Sheridan Critic i. i. 24 Your occasional tropes and
flowers suit the general coarseness of your stile, as tambour sprigs
would a ground of linsey-wolsey.
1799  H. More Strictures Mod. Syst. Female Educ. I. ix. 201 By this
negligence in the just application of words, we shall be..much misled
by these trope and figure ladies.
1837  Macaulay Ld. Bacon in Ess. (1887) 428 Irony is one of the four
primary tropes.
1876  W. E. Gladstone Homeric Synchronism 262 To treat as a poetical
trope this idea of kings as god-born or god-reared.
1888  J. Bryce Amer. Commonw. III. cxi. 597 [American] rhetoric is
Rhodian rather than Attic, overloaded with tropes and figures.
1924  M. I. Barry St. Augustine, Orator Pref. p. iii, The teaching of
these rhetoricians was chiefly in the skilful manipulation of the
tropes and figures of speech.
1960 Yale French Stud. No. 25. 50 The metaphorist unwittingly exhibits
his philosophy in his tropes.
2010  J. Kim Ends of Empire i. 42 Kennan's writing..is replete with
tropes and metaphors of disease..and health.
†b.  Music. A manner of playing; a mode; a harmonization. Obs.
1603  P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 1358 To let passe therefore the
five positures of the Tetrachords, as also the first five tones,
tropes, changes, notes or harmonies [Fr. et les cinq premiers tons,
changements de voix ou notes, ou armonies].
1605  Bacon Of Aduancem. Learning ii. sig. Ff1v, Is not the Trope of
Musicke, to auoyd or slyde from the close or Cadence, common with the
Trope of Rhetoric of deceyuing expectation?
1626  Bacon Sylua Syluarum §113. There be in Musick certaine Figures,
or Tropes; almost agreeing with Figures of Rhetoricke.
1664  J. Birchensha tr. J. H. Alsted Templum Musicum ix. 73 The formal
Affection of a Song, is that which floweth from the Form thereof: and
is called a musical Trope or Mood; which is a Rule, according to which
we direct the course of a Song. Otherwise called Nomus and Tonus. And
it is the same in Musick, as a certain kind of verse is in Poetry.
1782  C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music II. i. 52 The Abate Martini heard the
Greeks, in Passion Week, sing several tropes or modes..in four parts.
 2.  Christian Church. A phrase, sentence, or verse, usually sung,
introduced in the medieval Western Church as an embellishment into
some part of the text of the Mass or of the breviary office, esp. at
the close of a psalm or response.
The term trope has sometimes been used of purely melodic or only
partially texted accretions to the standard medieval melodies for the
liturgical texts, and more commonly for textual additions to
originally melismatic chants (properly proses or prosulae).



Tropes were first added to pre-existing chants in the 9th cent. and
were discontinued at the revision of the missal under Pope Pius V in
the 16th cent.
1609  J. Dowland tr. A. Ornithoparchus Micrologus iii. i. 69 All
things that are to be sung..as Hymnes, Sequences, Antiphones,
Responsories, Introitus, Tropes [L. Tropi], and the like.
1770 Ann. Reg. 1769 Misc. Ess. 157/1 The melodies, triomphes, tropes,
or laudes, still sung in some French cathedrals.
1846  W. Maskell Monumenta Ritualia Ecclesiae Anglicanae I. p. xxxvii,
The Tropes..were..sung either before or after the Introit and Hymns in
the service of the Mass.
1853  D. Rock Church of our Fathers IV. xi. 21 A..practice..had..grown
up..in the north and western quarters of Christendom..of weaving
certain pious sentences, called by the Romans ‘festive praises’, by
the Franks ‘tropes’, between the words of the psalm in the introit at
mass.
1894  W. H. Frere Winchester Troper p. ix, ‘Trope’..is the regular
word to describe additions to the Introit, Offertory and Communion,
and is also more rarely found in connection with the Ite missa est or
Benedicamus at the close of Mass.
1907  J. M. Manly in Mod. Philol. 4 593 Tropes—that is, insertions in
the authorized liturgy—were composed by the hundreds, and of all
conceivable varieties.
1958  W. Apel Gregorian Chant iii. 433 The music for the prosula or,
as we would say, for the trope, is identical with the closing passage
of the verse.
1991  J. Caldwell Oxf. Hist. Eng. Music I. iv. 190 The ‘Salve regina’
with its ‘verses’ (metrical tropes inserted before each of the three
final invocations of the text), of which the manuscript provides
fifteen settings.
1994 Time 4 Apr. 82/1 There may be as many as 11,000 Gregorian
melodies, ranging from relatively simple psalm settings to elaborate
tropes that were included in the Mass.
†3.  Logic. = mood n.2 2. Obs. rare.
1656  T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. viii. 53 Of Moods or Tropes there
are two kinds, one of indemonstrables,..the other of demonstrables.
 4.  Christian Church. Each of the three divisions which form the
Unity of the Brethren of the Moravian Church.
1753  H. Rimius Candid Narr. Rise & Progress Herrnhuters 19 Count
Zinzendorf calls them Tropes, Types, and at this very Time there are
three of them..viz. the Moravian Trope or Type,..the Lutheran,..and
the Reformed or Calvinist Trope.
1780  B. La Trobe tr. D. Cranz Anc. & Mod. Hist. Brethren 355
In..1749..the administration of the Reformed tropus [Ger. des
reformirten Tropi] in the Unity of the Brethren was tendered to, and
accepted by, the Bishop of Sodor and Man, Thomas Wilson.
1810  D. Bogue  & J. Bennett Hist. Dissenters III. i. 102 The three
different classes of persons who compose the Unity, bear among the
brethren the name of tropes or tropuses.
1864  A. Edersheim tr. J. H. Kurtz Ch. Hist. II. iii. 248 This
continued to be the properly Lutheran fund in the society, which also,
when it was divided into confessional tropes..remained in all the
common basis.
1900 Trans. Moravian Hist. Soc. 6 121 Hence there is a Lutheran, a
Reformed and a Moravian ‘trope’, in the Unity of the Brethren,
according to which souls are educated for eternity.
1954 Trans. Moravian Hist. Soc. 16 41 In the end Zinzendorf was
satisfied to place ‘administrators’ in charge of the ‘tropes’ rather
than bishops.
1998  C. Podmore Moravian Church in Eng. vi. 165 The structure in
which the tropes existed was thus still Moravian.
 5.  Greek Philos. An argument in support of scepticism.
Included in the ‘Pyrrhonian Principles’, written by the sceptic
philosopher Aenesidemus in the 1st cent. BC, were the Ten Tropes,
which gave arguments in support of the sceptic view of epistemology.
Although these have not survived, they were recorded by the
philosopher Sextus Empiricus c. 200 AD.
1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 168/1 Pyrrho himself is said by some antient
authors to have left no works behind him; the tropes, or epochs, or
fundamental principles of his philosophy.
1866  J. F. Ferrier Lect. Greek Philos. I. xv. 467 Of these tropes or
Sceptical arguments Sextus enumerates ten.
1910  R. D. Hicks Stoic & Epicurean 376 The ten tropes were intended
to contain the means of refuting dogmatism in all possible forms.
1933  R. G. Bury tr. H. Lotze in Sextus Empiricus Introd. p. xxxviii,
The ten tropes, or logical grounds of doubt, all come to this, that
sensations by themselves cannot discover to us what is the nature of
the object which excites them.
1995  N. Rescher Ess. in Hist. Philos. 54 The ideas at work in tropes
of Aenesidemus..were a staple of the intellectual diet of
his..predecessors of scepticism.
 6.  Philos. An instance of a property as occurring at a particular
time and place; a particular unrepeatable property, as opposed to a
universal (see universal n. 2a).
1953  D. C. Williams in Rev. Metaphysics 7 7 A cat and the cat's tail
are not tropes, but a cat's smile is a trope, and so is the whole
whose constituents are the cat's smile plus her ears and the aridity
of the moon.
1976  K. Campbell Metaphysics xiv. 217 In the meantime, tropes and
sets comprise the best categorial ontology I know.
1994 Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 94 253 According to the theory of
universals, if the particulars a, b, and c are each red, one and the
same entity, the property being red, is identical between them. Trope
theory denies this. If a, b, and c are each red, there are three
properties here. There is a's property of being red, or a's red trope,
there is b's red trope, and there is c's.
2012  P. van Inwagen in  K. J. Clark  & M. Rea Reason, Metaphysics, &
Mind viii. 154 Haecceities are not universals, since they can't be
shared, but..neither are they what philosophers who believe in them
have variously denominated as tropes or individual accidents or
particularized properties.
 7.  A significant or recurrent theme, esp. in a literary or cultural
context; a motif.
1975 Chicago Tribune 14 Dec. vii. 2/5 Barthelme is funning with the
eternal trope of fatherhood.
1991  D. Rieff Los Angeles ii. viii. 133 A more unvarnished version of
the same trope was Ridley Scotts film Blade Runner.
1996 Éire—Ireland Spring 191 The dichotomy between admissable and
inadmissable history, between official memory and private experience
that Casey sees as the dominant trope of Irish ethnicity in New York.
2006 Observer (Nexis) 23 July 26 [He]..avoids the routine tropes of
teen interest while allying youth's oldest theme—loss of
innocence—with that most modern of concerns, date rape.
 II.  Uses related to astronomy.
 8.  The apparent change of course of the sun at a solstice; a point
at which this occurs; = tropic n. 1b. Also: †a terrestrial tropic
(tropic n. 2a) (obs.). Now rare.
1599  T. Hill Schoole of Skil ii. 236 The same is the bound of the
sunnes iourney or course toward the North, and the nighest comming
vnto vs: vnto which being brought, he turneth backe, and directeth his
course into the South; of which that place is called Trope.
1677  T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV iv. 258 The Sun has..its
annual Tropes and Vicissitudes, what they call Solstices, whereby it
is nearer to or remoter from us.
1735  H. Brooke Universal Beauty iv. 169 Now 'thwart the trope, or
zone antartic steer.
1856 Proc. Royal Irish Acad. 6 265 By the sun's entrance into one of
the tropes, or cardinal points, the natural place of the intercalation
is indicated.
1903 Harper's Bazaar Nov. 970/1 The principal ancient religious
festivals celebrated the sun's apparent annual ‘turn’, in the spring
marking the trope of Cancer.
2003  F. Schaaf Year of Stars ix. 191 This latitude line on Earth is
called the Tropic of Cancer..because when it was named a few thousand
years ago the Sun made its trope—its 'turning point' back south—in the
constellation Cancer.
 III.  Uses related to mathematics.
 9.  Geom. The reciprocal of a node on a surface; a tangent plane or
developable surface that touches a given surface in a particular way.
In quot. 1869, trope is used only as a proposed combining form (in
cnictrope: see cnictrope n. at cnicnode n. Derivatives and bitrope).
The meaning of –trope in these words, though related to that of trope
in quot. 1875, is not entirely clear.
[1869  A. Cayley in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 159 202 Or using
‘trope’ as the reciprocal term to node, these will be Cʹ, cnictropes,
Bʹ, bitropes.]
1875  A. Cayley Coll. Math. Papers IX. 519 The quartic surface has
also four tropes (planes which touch the surface along a conic)... The
conic of contact or tropal conic in each plane being the intersection
of the plane with the before-mentioned quadric surface.
1926 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 48 247 In this form the surface is referred to
its tropes—tangent planes that meet the surface in a conic—as a
tetrahedron of reference.
2008  F. Aries et al. in  B. Jüttler  & R. Piene Geom. Modeling &
Algebraic Geom. ii. 36 The lines are distinct, unless the plane is a
trope.

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