acephalic en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Hellenic *ə- Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-)der. English a- Middle French céphaliquebor. English cephalic English acephalic From a- + cephalic.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Without a head.
an acephalic statue
[…] two acephalic sardines in mustard sauce are asleep in the rank darkness of their tin container.
1990, Mark Leyner, My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, New York: Harmony Books, page 5:
- (dated, not-comparable, of a headache) Characterized by a migraine aura without pain.
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(not-comparable) Without a leader.
[the] acephalic democracy [of Aleut village communities]
1980, William S. Laughlin, Aleuts: Survivors of the Bering Land Bridge, New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, page 144:1688, uncredited translator, A Dissertation Concerning Patriarchal and Metropolitical Authority by Emmanuel Schelstrate, London: Matthew Turner, [Introduction], p. xx, […] he endeavours not only to shew that the English Church was Acephalic, that is, without a Head; but also Autocephalic, that is under its own proper Jurisdiction only […]
an acephalic society
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(not-comparable) Deficient in the beginning, as a line of poetry that is missing its expected opening syllable.
The acephalic pentameters yield to tetrameters with a starting dactyl or anapest […]
1988, John Hollander, chapter 7, in Melodious Guile: Fictive Pattern in Poetic Language, Yale University Press, page 146:
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(not-comparable) Lacking the first portion of the text. (of a manuscript)
All the texts, with the exception of the acephalic Homiletic Fragment I, begin with a large, plain capital letter […]
2014, Mark C. Amodio, “The Poems of the Vercelli Book”, in The Anglo-Saxon Literature Handbook, Chichester: Blackwell, page 176:
Coordinates
Relateds
acephaly · acephalia · acephalous · anencephalic · cephalic
Synonyms
headless · leaderless · acephalous · acephalous · acephalous · acephalous