inverted circumflex

== English == === Etymology === From its earliest attested use as an idiomatic phrase in 1810, inverted circumflex was first used to denote a dipping tone — an inversion of the peaking tone denoted by ⟨῀⟩, the Ancient Greek περισπωμένη (perispōménē), commonly translated as “circumflex” — thence the name was applied to diacritics which marked such a dipping tone and, by extension, other tones to which it was suited; finally, due to such a diacritic’s resemblance to the háček, the name came to be applied to it as well. === Noun === inverted circumflex (plural inverted circumflexes) (phonology, now disused) A dipping tone. 1827, James Rush, The Philosophy of the Human Voice, pages ix and x: Mr. Walker does triumphantly claim the discovery of the inverted circumflex accent, or the downward and upward continued movement. […] Greek and Roman writers tell us, indefinitely, of the acute, grave, and circumflex movements; and these, with the newly described inverted circumflex, have, at a recent date, first been formally regarded, in the art of speaking the English language. (typography) Any diacritic obtained by rotating a circumflex (ˆ) 180°. (now only informally) A háček.