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favours

Diction
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

Favors or charms, especially gifts of affection or beauty. In older poetry it often means a person's attractive features or kindnesses.

Detailed Definition
In early modern poetry, favours can mean signs of affection, gracious acts, or attractive features rather than just modern 'favors.' Here the speaker treats the beloved's charms as something given out too freely, like gifts that lose value when shared with everyone.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Thy favours are but like the wind” uses an older spelling of favors, meaning gifts or kindnesses; “She wore his favours, ribbons at her sleeve”; “The courtier begged the queen’s favours”; “No favours can purchase an honest song”
Additional Notes
In this poem 'favours' is used in an older poetic sense, which can be unfamiliar because it does not mean the everyday modern idea of a favor.; Found in the poem, To His Forsaken Mistress by Sir Robert Ayton
Also Known As
graces charms blessings favors
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