choliambus

[koh-lee-am-buhs]

noun

Prosody.

plural

choliambi 

1. a line of iambic meter with a spondee or trochee replacing the last foot.

Word History and Origins

Origin of choliambus¹

< Greek chōlíambos, equivalent to chōl ( ós ) lame, halting + íambos iamb

Example Sentences

He was considered the inventor of parody and of a peculiar metre, the scazon or choliambus, which substitutes a spondee for the final iambus of an iambic senarius, and is an appropriate form for the burlesque character of his poems.

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Choliambus or scazon, which is the same with the last mentioned, except that the concluding foot of the line is always a spondee.

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In a lonely hollow walk, overgrown with sting-nettles he scanned the deadly verses on his fingers, until the murderous iambus flowed evenly upon its four feet without a halting choliambus.

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