Alcaic

[al-key-ik]

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.

Origin of Alcaic

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

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for alcaic

Historical Examples of alcaic

The model of this variety is not to be found in any of the Alcaic or Tyrtæan remains.
The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume II.
Various
He used to say, “The Horatian alcaic is, perhaps, the stateliest metre except the Virgilian hexameter at its best.”
Tennyson and His Friends
Various
On the other hand, we can find scarcely an ode in the Sapphic or Alcaic metre, which does not clearly betray its modern origin.
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy
Jacob Burckhardt
Somewhat as in the Greek alcaic, where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the wave that falls over in the last.
The Sufistic Quatrains of Omar Khayyam
Omar Khayyam
Virgilius Mars wrote in hexameters; Horatius Flaccus in alcaic, sapphic, and anapestic verse.
The Green Book
Mr Jkai

British Dictionary definitions for alcaic

Alcaic

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