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a-bed

Archaic Terms
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An archaic expression meaning in bed or lying in bed, often used in older poetry to suggest rest, sleep, illness, intimacy, or idleness.

Detailed Definition
This is an old-fashioned hyphenated form meaning “in bed.” In the poem, it appears in the child’s explanation that her father is sick and lying down, which helps show the family’s poverty and illness.
Example
Example in poetry:
“And he lay sick a-bed” preserves the older phrase for “in bed”; “The child lay a-bed while snow sealed the lane” gives an archaic, ballad-like cadence; In traditional song, “a-bed” can supply a needed stress: “All night I lay a-bed alone”; Contemporary historical poetry may use it deliberately: “Grandmother, a-bed, heard the sirens”
Additional Notes
The hyphenated form is archaic and may puzzle modern readers even though the meaning is simple.; Found in the poem, The Complaints of the Poor by Robert Southey
Also Known As
in slumber at rest in repose
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