feminine ending

American  

noun

1. Prosody. an unaccented syllable at the close of a line of poetry, often one that is added to the metrical pattern as an extra syllable.

2. Grammar. a termination or final syllable marking a feminine word: In Latin -ā is a feminine ending for the ablative case in the singular.

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feminine ending British  

noun

1. prosody an unstressed syllable at the end of a line of verse

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Etymology

Origin of feminine ending

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Fay, Amy, account of Liszt, 217. feminine ending, 57.

From Music: An Art and a Language by Spalding, Walter Raymond

Another feminine ending among the Anglo-Saxons was gith, which, as elsewhere noted, I have supposed to mean woman or goddess.

From Surnames as a Science by Ferguson, Robert

On the other hand, if the last stressed syllable of the line is followed by an unstressed one, the two together are called a feminine ending.

From An Introduction to Shakespeare by MacCracken, H. N.

Father = patr‑o; suf. -in denotes feminine; ending -a makes it an adjective. 2In crowds.

From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Clark, Walter John

The Hebrew form of the word, however, is not quite the same, the Assyrian feminine ending being absent.

From The Old Testament In the Light of The Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia by Pinches, Theophilus Goldridge