Pl. theses. [a. Gr. θέσις putting, placing; a proposition, affirmation, etc., f. root θε- of τι-θέ-ναι to put, place.]
I. In Prosody, etc.: opposed to ARSIS.
1. Originally and properly, according to ancient writers, The setting down of the foot or lowering of the hand in beating time, and hence (as marked by this) the stress or ictus; the stressed syllable of a foot in a verse; a stressed note in music.
[1855. Weil & Benloew, Théorie générale de l’accentuation latine, 98.
1861. R. Westphal, Fragm. der griech. Rhythmiker, 98.
1880. P. Pierson, Métrique Naturelle du Lang., 32.]
1864. Hadley, Ess. (1873), 81. The name feet for rhythmic elements, arsis (raising of the foot), thesis (setting down of the foot), have primary reference to orchestic.
1891. Cent. Dict., Thesis.… In musical rhythmics, a heavy accent, such as in beating time is marked by a down-beat.
2. By later Latin writers (e.g., Martianus Victorinus a. 400, Priscian c. 500) used for the lowering of the voice on an unstressed syllable, thus practically reversing the original meaning; hence in prevalent acceptation (from the time of Bentley, 1726): The unaccented or weak part of a foot in verse (classical or modern), or an unaccented note in music.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxxi. (1495), 941. Arsis is rerynge of voys and is the begynnyng of songe. Thesis is settynge and is the ende.
[1726. Bentley, Terence, p. i.]
1830. J. Seager, trans. Hermann’s Metres, I. ii. 4. § 14. After the example of Bentley, we call that time in which the ictus is, the arsis, and those times, which are without the ictus, the thesis.… Other writers on metres, together with ancient musicians,… call that thesis which we call arsis, and that arsis, which we call thesis.
1844. [see ANACRUSIS].
1846. Keightley, Notes Virg., Bucol., I. 47. (Fōrtūnātĕ sĕnēx, ērgō tŭă rūră mănēbūnt!) He [Wagner] adds, that the emphasis should therefore be on tua, and not on manebunt. But this was not possible to a Roman, for tua here (like mea ix. 4) is in the thesis of a dactyl.
1876. Kennedy, Pub. Sch. Lat. Gram., § 258. Each simple Foot has two parts, one of which is said to have the ictus upon it, and is called arsis…; the other part is called thesis.
1879. Ouseley, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 95/2. The terms arsis and thesis may be regarded as virtually obsolete, and are practically useless in these days.
ǁ 3. Mus. Per arsin et thesin (= by ‘raising and lowering’): used of a fugue, canon, etc., in which the subject or melody is inverted, so that the rising parts correspond to the falling ones in the original subject and vice versâ: the same as by inversion.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., II. 114. If therefore you make a Canon per arsin & thesin, without anie discorde in binding maner in it.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v. Arsis, A Point being inverted or turned, is said, To move per Arsin and Thesin, that is to say when a Point rises in one Part, and falls in another; or on the contrary, when it falls in one Part, and rises in another.
1879. [see ARSIS 3].
II. In Logic, Rhetoric, etc.
4. A proposition laid down or stated, esp. as a theme to be discussed and proved, or to be maintained against attack (in Logic sometimes as distinct from HYPOTHESIS 2, in Rhetoric from ANTITHESIS 2); a statement, assertion, tenet.
1579. Digges, Stratiot., a iv. The vulgare Thesis of the Earthes Stabilitie.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon, Pref. (1602), A v b. By way of a Quodlibet or Thesis proposed.
1651. Life Father Sarpi (1676), 8. He was sent to dispute against the Theses that were then given in.
1697. trans. Burgersdicius his Logic, II. xxiii. 112. A Thesis, whose Truth is not known by the meer Signification of the Words only; but by the Judgment of the Senses, or some other way of Declaration.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The maintaining a thesis, is a great part of the exercise a student is to undergo for a degree. Ibid. Every proposition may be divided into thesis and hypothesis, thesis contains the thing affirmed or denied, and hypothesis the conditions of the affirmation or negation. Thus,… If a triangle and parallelogram have equal bases and altitudes (is the hypothesis), the first is half of the second, the thesis.
1833. Coleridge, Table-t., 3 July. The style of Junius is a sort of metre, the law of which is a balance of thesis and antithesis.
1860. Collier, Gt. Events Hist., vi. 182. [Luther] Shaping his belief on the subject of the indulgences into ninety-five theses or propositions.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, II. 96. In the Epistle to the Romans he established the thesis that Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty.
b. spec. distinguished from HYPOTHESIS 1, q.v. quots. 1620–a. 1647.
c. A theme for a school exercise, composition, or essay.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 624. Whether among the theses given to declaim upon, it might not be profitable sometimes to choose those wherein the boys will be heartily interested.
1786. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 42. On such a thesis, I never think the theme long.
5. A dissertation to maintain and prove a thesis (in sense 4); esp. one written or delivered by a candidate for a University degree.
1653. Munim. Univ. Glasgow (1854), II. 323. Theologicall theses.
1659. Owen, Consid. Bibl. Polygl., 205. The Thesis prefering this or that translation above the originall.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 36. He makes Theses upon the Subject he intends to answer, which Theses are printed.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, I. xiii. § 3. It is the business of the respondent to write a thesis … or short discourse on the question proposed.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, vi. Scott’s thesis was, in fact, on the Title of the Pandects, ‘Concerning the disposal of the dead bodies of criminals.’
1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. v. 266. There was an instruction that each should write his name on his thesis.
6. Comb.: thesis-play, a play composed with the purpose of maintaining a thesis, a tendency-play; so thesis-playwright.
1902. Edin. Rev., July, 199. The conscious, deliberate thesis-playwright was Dumas fils. Ibid. (1904), Oct., 299. The use of ‘thesis play’ as a term of reproach is not without a certain justification.
1905. Daily Chron., 14 June, 5/2. ‘L’Adversaire’ is one of those brilliantly specious thesis-plays with which M. Capus has been wont to astonish both the philosophic and dramatic worlds.
