Alcaic

[ al-key-ik ]

/ ælˈkeɪ ɪk /

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adjective

pertaining to Alcaeus or to certain meters or a form of strophe or stanza used by, or named after, him.

noun

Alcaics, Alcaic verses or strophes.

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Origin of Alcaic

1620–30; <Late Latin Alcaicus<Greek Alkaïkós, equivalent to Alka(îos) Alcaeus + -ikos-ic

Words nearby Alcaic

Albury-Wodonga, albuterol, alc., Alcaeus, alcahest, Alcaic, alcaide, Alcaids, Alcalá de Henares, alcalde, alcaligenes

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Alcaic in a sentence

Virgilius Mars wrote in hexameters; Horatius Flaccus in alcaic, sapphic, and anapestic verse.
The Green Book|Mr Jkai
As a boy of sixteen, he wrote verses in the Alcaic and Asclepiadeian measures, and soon acquired a considerable mastery over them.
Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry|Wilhelm Alfred Braun
Thus, there is as much artificiality about a stanza of Chinese verse as there is about an Alcaic stanza in Latin.
A History of Chinese Literature|Herbert A. Giles
Somewhat as in the Greek Alcaic, where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the Wave that falls over in the last.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam|Omar Khayyam

Of these, four are in hendecasyllabics, one in the Alcaic and one in the Sapphic stanza.
The Student's Companion to Latin Authors|George Middleton

British Dictionary definitions for Alcaic

Alcaic

/ (ælˈkeɪɪk) /

adjective

of or relating to a metre used by the 7th-century bc Greek lyric poet Alcaeus, consisting of a strophe of four lines each with four feet

noun

(usually plural) verse written in the Alcaic form

Word Origin for Alcaic

C17: from Late Latin Alcaicus of Alcaeus

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012