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.
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 Edward Berdoe
To meet these difficulties Dryden resorted to three mechanical devices—the hemistich, the alexandrine, and the triplet, all three of which could be used indifferently to eke out the space or to give variety of sound....
From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden
Even from ancient times, the first hemistich of the verse has created great embarrassment to interpreters, from which very few of them, not excepting even Calvin, manage to extricate themselves skilfully.
From Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2 by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg
We may deeply admire and wonder, and, in another line or hemistich, grow indifferent or slightly averse.
From Hearts of Controversy by Alice Christiana Thompson Meynell
The airs of songs are commonly very short and simple, adapted to a single verse, or even to a single hemistich; but in the instrumental music there is more variety.
From The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I. Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Anonymous
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.
