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slavish

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

Servile, abjectly submissive, or lacking originality; describes behavior or imitative style devoid of independence in satirical verse.

Detailed Definition
Slavish here means cringing or servile, not simply 'hard-working.' The word sharpens the poem's sense of humiliation and broken spirit in the man's expression.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Yet so slavish, makes you shudder!” means excessively submissive or lacking independence; Blake condemns systems that reduce people to obedient instruments; “The slavish echo repeated every order” shows unthinking imitation; Contemporary-style example: “The speaker rejects a slavish loyalty to tradition”
Additional Notes
In the quoted line, slavish is a more specialized literary word for servile or abject behavior, not a common everyday adjective.; Found in the poem, Suicide by William Ernest Henley
Also Known As
subservient obsequious servile
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