adjective
Etymology
Origin of spondaic
1715–25; < Late Latin spondaicus, metathetic variant of spondīacus < Greek spondeiakós, equivalent to spondeî ( os ) spondee + -akos, variant of -ikos -ic
Vocabulary lists containing spondaic
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.
Reisk.; although, according to Hephæstion, the laconicum metrum was a tetrameter catalecticus in syllabam, with a spondaic ending; and according to M. Victorinus ubi sup. a trimeter catalecticus in syllabam.1581.B.
From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried
If a line ends with two spondees it is a spondaic hexameter.
From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
Similarly, in the second line, "rushed forth," which an English tongue would here deliver as a spondee—rūshed fōrth—varies the rhythm by this spondaic intervention, but still leaves us the original rhythmic cluster, "into the Strand."
From The English Novel And the Principle of its Development by Lanier, Sidney
In the kitchen Vessons, very spondaic, was singing 'The Three Jolly Huntsmen.'
From Gone to Earth by Webb, Mary Gladys Meredith
There is in its slow spondaic movement an eternity of tears.
From Robert Burns Famous Scots Series by Setoun, Gabriel
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.
