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.
All the chorals that carry it have substantially the same movement—for the spondaic accent of the long lines is compulsory—but their offerings sing “to one clear harp in divers tones.”
From The Story of the Hymns and Tunes by Brown, Theron
In the series of dactylic lines 17-22, Catullus no doubt intended to convey the idea of rapidity, as, in the spondaic line immediately following, of labour.
From The Poems and Fragments of Catullus by Ellis, Robinson
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
There is in its slow spondaic movement an eternity of tears.
From Robert Burns Famous Scots Series by Setoun, Gabriel
But in both cases I preferred to lock up by the massy spondaic variety; yet never forgetting to premise a dancing dactyle—'many a'—and 'pinion of.'
From The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Japp, Alexander H. (Alexander Hay)
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.
