VINERY (also known as vinework

DIMETER: A line containing only two metrical feet. See meter and foot.

DIMIDIATION: The heraldic practice of combining two animals in a coat-of-arms into a single composite creature.

DIMINUTIVE: Any affix meaning "small." It can suggest cuteness or an emotional attachment. An example is the word piglet, where the diminutive alters the normal word pig.

DING-DONG THEORY: The linguistic theory that language began as instinctive responses to stimuli (Algeo 316).

DIONYSIA: The Athenian religious festivals celebrating Dionysus in March-April. Dionysus (Roman Bacchus) was the god of intoxication, celebration, powerful emotion, and loss of self-control. At his festival, priests would sacrifice goats on the theater stage, and then actors would perform tragic plays in honor of the god, interspersed with brief comedies. (The word tragedy itself may originate in the Greek tragos--a goat song, or possibly in a pun on "billygoat singers.") See tragedy, Lenaia.

DIPODY: In classical prosody, dipody describes the combination of two feet into another single metrical unit. Often used interchangeably with the more general term syzygy, this dipody involves the substitution of two normal feet, usually iambs or trochees, under a more powerful beat, so that a "galloping" or "rolling" rhythm results. See iamb, meter, rhythm, and trochee. Dipody is common in children's rhymes, nursery rhymes, and ballads. J. A. Cuddon lists two examples in his Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory that are too lengthy to reproduce here, but serve to illustrate the effect well.

DIPHTHONG (from Greek dipthongus): A complex speech sound in which a speaker begins to articulate one vowel and moves to another vowel or semi-vowel sound by switching the position of tongue and lips. For example, in the common name Roy, the oy makes a diphthong in that the vowel positions shift from one noise to another. The term diphthong should not be confused with digraph (see above). Diphthongs are phonetic (dealing with the sounds of spoken words), and digraphs are graphemic (dealing with the act of recording words on the page as symbols or letters).

DIPTHONGIZATION: The change of a normal vowel into a diphthong.

DIRGE: See discussion of elegy, below.

DISCOVERY SPACE: According to Stephen Greenblatt, this is "A central opening or alcove concealed behind a curtain in the center of the frons scenae. The curtain could be drawn aside to "discover" tableaux such as Portia's caskets, the body of Polonius, or the statue of Hermione. Shakespeare appears to have used this stage device only sparingly" (1139).

DISPLACEMENT: This term in linguistics refers to the ability of language to indicate or signify things not physically present.

DISSIMILATION: A linguistic development in which two sounds become less alike. Algeo (317) offers the example of diphtheria, in which the initial /f/ sound in has through dissimilation become .

DISTYCH: The technical term for a two-line group in which a pair of metrical lines of different lengths together compose or express a complete idea (Wheeler 38). In Greek elegies, these distichs are usually rhymed and composed with one line in dactylic hexameter followed by a line in dactylic pentameter. In Hebrew poetry such as the Psalms or Proverbs, the lines are typically unrhymed but contain elements of parallelism such as synonymou repetitions, antithesis, anaphora, or epistrophe (Wheeler 37-38).

DITHYRAMB: An ancient Athenian poetic form sung during the Dionysia (see above). The first tragedies may have originated from the dithyrambs. See tragedy.

DOG LATIN: Unidiomatic or crude pidgin Latin intermixed with local tongues. An example of dog latin appears in scene eight of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, when Robin the servant tries to invoke spirits: "Sanctobulorum Periphrasticon--nay, I'll tickle you, vinter--look to the goblet, Rafe--Polypragmos Belseborams framanto pacostiphos tostis Mephastophilis" (23-26). Cf. macaronic text.

DOLCE STIL NUOVO (Italian, "sweet new style"): Dante uses this term to describe the style of lyric poetry he sought to create in the Purgatorio. He and other Italian poets like Guinicelli and Cavalcanti using this style are called stilnuovisti poets. The most important feature of this style is an attitude toward women and earthly love derived from troubadour poetry. This attitude depicts women as the ultimate form of God's beauty, and women are held to inspire a spiritual love in their male admirers that will ultimately lead them to Divine Love. This attempt to reconcile or combine sacred and sexual love contrasts starkly with monastic literature treating women as an evil temptation to good men.

DONATISM: The term donatism is an eponym taken from a bishop in North Africa named Donatus. During the patristic period, Donatus was upset by the readiness of the mainstream church to welcome back into its fold clergy who had temporarily renounced their faith in fear of Roman persecution. Donatus believed that such individuals were not fit to be priests, and that church rituals led by such individuals were worthless. This developed into the heresy of "donatism" in the medieval period. Donatists argued that baptisms, marriages, confessions, funerals, communion services, and other church rituals were invalid if the priest performing the ceremony was in a state of sin. Thus, the entire ministry of these lapsed clergy was considered invalid by these donatists. Accordingly, donatists declared that anyone "married" by a sinning priest was actually fornicating, and anyone who confessed and received absolution from evil clergy never actually received forgiveness of sins. Such people would need to have the rituals performed again by a priest in a state of grace.

In contrast, the orthodox Catholic belief (as set down by Saint Augustine) declared that priests were necessary instruments of the Holy Spirit, but it was the Holy Spirit itself that supplied a binding spiritual efficacy to church rituals. Accordingly, any rituals such as confession, marriage, or baptism received by a devout worshipper in an ordained church were still valid regardless of whether the priest performing the rites was himself in a state of grace. In Chaucer's "Pardoner's Tale," one of the issues raised by the Pardoner is the question of whether or not the Pardoner's indulgences have any spiritual efficacy, even though the Pardoner is a self-confessed cheat and trickster. Ironically, the Pardoner takes an orthodox position, declaring a "ful vicious man" can still tell a moral tale, and he argues that those who buy his fake relics still benefit spiritually even if the relics are fakes.

DONNÉE (French, "given"): The assumptions upon which a writer constructs a work of literature. Some common examples include the assumption that young love is fickle, that society is bleak or dangerous for survivors of warfare, that guilt is inescapable, that following one's heart (or head) leads to happiness (or heartbreak), and so on. Contrast with cliché and theme.

DOSBARTH GWYNEDD: Also known as the Venodotian Code or the "four and twenty measures," the Dosbarth Gwynedd are an ancient and complex set of metrical rules for Welsh poetry associated with the Gwynedd region (north Wales) in contrast with the newer Dosbarth Morgannwg, a newer tradition (15th century) associated with the region of Glamorganshire. In general, the Dosbarth Gwynedd are considered the standard or "authentic" verse tradition, even though most modern Welsh poets tend to ignore this incredibly complex tradition and concentrate on smaller, simpler forms like the cywydd and the englyn.