A posteriori

DOSBARTH MORGANNWG: See discussion under Dosbarth Gwynedd.

DOUBLE DACTYL: A comic verse written with two quatrains, with each line written in dactylic dimeter. The second line may be a name, and the sixth or seventh line may be a single word. J. A. Cuddon's poem, "Nicholas Williamson," illustrates the technique:

Higgledy-piggledy
Nicholas Williamson
Sat in the bathtub and
Scratched at his nose.
Seldom was schoolboy so
Anthropocentrically
Gifted with flexible
Bendable toes.

DOUBLE ENTENDRE (French, "double meaning"): The deliberate use of ambiguity in a phrase or image--especially involving sexual or humorous meanings.

DOUBLE NEGATIVE: Two (or more) negatives used for emphasis, e.g., "I don't want no candy" as opposed to "I don't want any candy." Prescriptivist grammarians recommend avoiding double negatives in formal writing, but historians note this rule is of fairly recent manufacture in English history. Double negatives were perfectly acceptable in English up until the Enlightenment. For instance, the medieval author Chaucer routinely uses two to four double negatives in his descriptions--such as the Knight in The Canterbury Tales: "He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In al his lyf unto no maner wight" (GP 70-71).

DOUBLE PLOT: When an author uses two related plots within a single narrative. See futher discussion under subplot and plot.

DOUBLE RHYME: A rhyme that involves two syllables rather than one. For instance, rhyming lend/send is a single rhyme, in which each word consists of a single syllable. However, the words lending/sending constitute a double rhyme because two rhyming syllables are used. In English, most double rhymes create a feminine ending. Contrast with triple rhyme and feminine ending (under meter).

DOUBLE SUPERLATIVE: Double use of the superlative degree--such as the word foremost, which uses both the superlative sufix -m and -est (Algeo 317).

DOUBLET: In linguistics, a pair of words that derive from the same etymon, but since they were adapted at different times or by different routes, take on two different meanings. For instance, the Modern English words chief and chef both come from the same French word, originally meaning roughly "guy in charge." Chief was adopted, however, in a time when Norman French was associated with military power, and thus the word had contexts of "leader of a war band." The same word was adopted centuries later, however, in a time when Parisian French was associated with culture and culinary arts. Now, chef came to mean in English, "leader of a kitchen." Thus, the same word adopted twice can come to gain two different meanings.

DOUBLING: Greenblatt describes this process as, "The common [Renaissance] practice of having one actor play multiple roles, so that a play with a large cast of characters might be performed by a relatively small company" (1139).

DRACULA'S LAW: A helpful mnemonic phrase, "blood is good food" useful for remembering sound shifts in the vowel o from Middle English to Modern English. Originally, between 1200-1400, the letter often indicated a long Middle English /o:/ but it rapidly developed into /u/, as in food, roof, and room, and root. However, in the 1400s, in some words, the vowel shortened and unrounded to the sound in blood and flood. In still other words, the letter retained the long vowel /o:/ until about 1700, but the vowel was then shortened without being unrounded, giving us the sound found in good, foot, and book. Thus, the standard pronunciation is as follows:

• 
  blood (c.1400-1500)
  
• 
  good (c. 1700 et passim)
  
• 
  food (c. 1200-1400)
  

DRAMA: A composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving conflict between a character or characters and some external or internal force (see conflict). Playwrights usually design dramas for presentation on a stage in front of an audience. Aristotle called drama "imitated human action." Drama may have originated in religious ceremonies. Thespis of Attica (sixth century BCE) was the first recorded composer of a tragedy. Tragedies in their earliest stage were performed by a single actor who interacted with the chorus. The playwright Aeschylus added a second actor on the stage (deuteragonist) to allow additional conflict and dialogue. Sophocles and Euripides added a third (tritagonist). Medieval drama may have evolved independently from rites commemorating the birth and death of Christ. During the late medieval period and the early Renaissance, drama gradually altered to the form we know today. The mid-sixteenth century in England in particular was one of the greatest periods of world drama. In traditional Greek drama, as defined by Aristotle, a play was to consist of five acts and follow the three dramatic unities. In more recent drama (i.e., during the last two centuries), plays have frequently consisted of three acts, and playwrights have felt more comfortable disregarding the confines of Aristotelian rules involving verisimilitude. See also unities, comedy, tragedy, revenge play, miracle play, morality play, and mystery play. An individual work of drama is called a play.