Alcaic

American  

[al-key-ik] / ælˈkeɪ ɪk /

adjective

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

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noun

1. Alcaics, Alcaic verses or strophes.

Alcaic British  

/ ælˈkeɪɪk /

adjective

1. 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

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noun

1. (usually plural) verse written in the Alcaic form

Etymology

Origin of Alcaic

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

Example Sentences

The Alcaic measure was one of the most splendid inventions of Greek metrical art.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

They published whole libraries, controversy, casuistry, history, treatises on optics, Alcaic odes, editions of the fathers, madrigals, catechisms, and lampoons.

From The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 2 by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron

‘With the principal lyric metres, the Sapphic and Alcaic, Horace had done what Vergil had accomplished with the dactylic hexameter, carried them to the highest point of which the foreign Latin tongue was capable.’

From Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Luce, Edmund

Gray's Alcaic Ode.—A question asked in Vol. i., p.

From Notes and Queries, Number 62, January 4, 1851 by Various

Of these, four are in hendecasyllabics, one in the Alcaic and one in the Sapphic stanza.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by Middleton, George