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subs

Noun
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

Informal military slang for subalterns (junior commissioned officers); used in 20th-century war poetry to depict young soldiers.

Detailed Definition
Subs is military slang for subalterns, meaning junior commissioned officers. In this poem it helps place the speaker in a British colonial army setting, where such slang would have been familiar to insiders but not to many modern readers.
Example
Example in poetry:
Kipling’s “Mad Carew” is known “by the subs at Khatmandu,” where subs means junior officers or subalterns; “The subs saluted, fresh from Sandhurst” places the clipped military noun in context; In war verse, “subs and privates shared the rain-soaked trench” marks rank and class; Modern historical diction: “Young subs read dispatches by lantern-light.”
Additional Notes
The clipped military slang in the quoted line is specialized and not a common everyday word.; Found in the poem, The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God by J. Milton Hayes
Also Known As
substitutes replacements alternatives stand-ins
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