Clivis [clinis, clivus, flexa]

(from Lat. clivus: ‘slope’; Gk. klinō: ‘I bend’).

In western chant notation a neume signifying two notes, the second lower than the first. Its shape often resembles that of the oratorical circumflex accent, from which it is probably derived. (For illustration see Notation, Table 1; see also M. Huglo: ‘Les noms des neumes et leur origine’, EG, i 1954, pp.53–67.)

DAVID HILEY