distich
Americannoun
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a unit of two lines of verse, usually a self-contained statement; couplet.
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a rhyming couplet.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of distich
1545–55; < Latin distichon, noun use of neuter of Greek dístichos having two lines, equivalent to di- di- 1 + stíchos row
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.
In the model distich quoted by Coleridge— "In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column, In the pentameter still falling in melody back;" the pentameter is a better verse than the hexameter.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846 by Various
He is again mentioned by Meres for his distich on king James's Furies & Lepanto. fol.
From A History of English Poetry: an Unpublished Continuation by Thomas Warton
The following distich is used in this game: Higgory, diggory, digg'd, My sow has pigg'd.
From Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England by J. O. (James Orchard) Halliwell-Phillipps
Coleridge also translated from Schiller the well-known distich describing and exemplifying the elegiac verse of Ovid: "In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column; In the pentameter aye falling in melody back."
From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden
In the seven remaining epodes Horace has diversified the measures, while retaining the general character of the distich.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6 "English Language" to "Epsom Salts" by Various
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.
