Xylophone

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a musical instrument consisting of bars of wood or glass graduated in length and resting on belts. The notes are produced by striking on the bars with small hammers. X. Y. Z. CORRESPONDENCE, in United States history, the name given to the dispatches of the three commissioners to France , Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, containing the insulting demands made by Talleyrand and the other French Directors as the price of respect and courtesy to the American republic. In the otherwise complete copies published by Congress President Adams sub- To the destituted X. Y. and Z. for the names of Talleyrand's emissaries . mands the United States representatives returned a decided refusal. It is said that Pinckney, in response , made use of the phrase, "Millions for defense, but not once cent for tribute ." Y, y, the 25th letter of the English alphabet, in modern English, both a consonant and a vowel. It is taken from the Latin, into which language it was adopted from the Greek (v) or upsilon. It sometimes represents an Anglo-Saxon character which is supposed to have a sound resembling that of the French u or German ü. At the beginning of syllables, and when followed by a vowel y is a palatal consonant, being formed by bringing the middle of the tongue in contact with the palate, nearly in the position to which the g hard brings it. Hence, the Anglo-Saxon hard g has often been softened to y, as in day Anglo-Saxon dag, may=Anglo-Saxon mag, etc. In words of Romance origin y frequently represents: (1) French -ie Latin -ia, as in barony, company, copy, jolly, family, memory, victory, etc. (2) Latin -ium, as augury, horology, remedy, study, etc. (3) Latin -atus, as attorney, deputy, ally, quarry. (4) French -if; Latin -ivus, as hasty, (=Old French hastif), jolly (Middle English jolif; Old French joli, fem. jolive), testy, etc. (5) Many words ending in y have come through Latin nouns in -ia (French -ie), from Greek -ia, -eia, as analogy, apology, blasphemy, philosophy, etc. (6) As an adjective termination, y generally represents the Anglo-Saxon -ig, as in stony Anglo-Saxon stánig, hungry =Anglo-Saxon hungrig. So also in some nouns it represents Anglo-Saxon -ig, as in honey Anglo-Saxon hunig. In the = suffix, -ly, it is both an adjectival and an adverbial suffix, and represents the Anglo-Saxon -ic, -ice, or -iche, as godly Anglo-Saxon godlic, friendly Anglo- Saxon freóndlic, ndlichardly hardly Anglo-Saxon heardlice. In nouns ending in -ty, this ending represents the French -té, Latin =tatem (nominative- tas), as in vanity (=French vanité, Latin vanitatem, accus. of vanitatus), calamity, etc. Y In the middle, and at the end of words, y is a vowel, and is precisely the same as i. When accented it is pronounced as i long, as in de-fy, dy'ing, etc., and when unaccented as i short, as in glöry, jõl-ly, cit-y, etc. Y is sometimes called the Pythagorean letter, from its Greek original in its form of three limbs representing the sacred triad formed by the duad proceeding from the monad. In chemistry, Y is the symbol of yttrium. As a numeral, it stands for 150, and with a dash over it for 150,000. Y- is a common prefix in Middle English words, and represents the Anglo-Saxon -e or ge-, as in yclept, yclad. It is the same as ge-.