SYMPHONY n.
tly been applied to large orchestral works in freer form, with arguments or programmes to explain their meaning, such as the "symphonic poems" of Liszt. The term was formerly applied to any composition for an orchestra, as overtures, etc., and still earlier, to certain compositions partly vocal, partly instrumental.…
TRUELOVE n.
An unexplained word occurring in Chaucer, meaning, perhaps, an aromatic sweetmeat for sweetening the breath. T. R. Lounsbury. Under his tongue a truelove he bore. Chaucer. Truelove knot, a complicated, involved knot that does not readily untie; the emblem of interwoven affection or engagement; -- called also true-lover…
VERNER'S LAW n.
A statement, propounded by the Danish philologist Karl Verner in 1875, which explains certain apparent exceptions to Grimm's law by the original position of the accent. Primitive Indo-European k, t, p, became first in Teutonic h, th, f, and appear without further change in old Teutonic, if the accent rested on the prec…