hemistich
Americannoun
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the exact or approximate half of a stich, or poetic verse or line, especially as divided by a caesura or the like.
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an incomplete line, or a line of less than the usual length.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hemistich
1565–75; < Late Latin hēmistichium < Greek hēmistíchion a half-verse. See hemi-, stich 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And is not Sir Thomas Hammer quite correct in expression, when he alters the hemistich into "Wilt drink up Nile?"
From Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 91, July 26, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various
The Luccan and Umbrian stornello is much shorter, consisting indeed of a hemistich having some natural object which suggests the motive of the little poem.
From The Browning Cyclop?dia A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning by Berdoe, Edward
The distich, which amongst Arabs is looked upon as one line, he named "Bayt," nighting- place, tent or house; and the hemistich Misrá'ah, the one leaf of a folding door.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 10 by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
A hemistich seems to be missing here, metrically; and surely the sense requires the interpolation of several lines, to record the birth of Methuselah in Enoch's 65th year.
From Genesis A Translated from the Old English by Mason, Lawrence
"And what is this hemistich?" asked the chevalier, more and more astonished.
From The Conspirators The Chevalier d'Harmental by Dumas père, Alexandre
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
