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unbarbed

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

Not having barbs or hooks; here, not yet sharpened or made dangerous.

Detailed Definition
Unbarbed is a specialized descriptive word, literally meaning without barbs. In the poem it suggests that the child's arrows are still harmless and not yet made painful or deadly by experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Thy arrows, not yet dire, / Are still unbarbed” imagines arrows without barbs, hence less wounding; A barbed arrowhead catches in flesh, so unbarbed can mean harmless, softened, or not yet cruel; Cupid’s arrows are often metaphorical weapons of love, as in classical lyric; “Her unbarbed words struck, but did not lodge” adapts the image to speech
Additional Notes
“Unbarbed” is an unusual descriptive term in the quoted line, and readers may not immediately know its literal meaning without looking it up.; Found in the poem, To Olivia by Francis Thompson
Also Known As
untipped unbarbed wire smooth-edged
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