Alcaic

[ al-key-ik ]

adjective

1. pertaining to Alcaeus or to certain meters or a form of strophe or stanza used by, or named after, him.

noun

1. Alcaics, Alcaic verses or strophes.

Alcaic

/ ælˈkeɪɪk /

adjective

1. of or relating to a metre used by the 7th-century bc Greek lyric poet Alcaeus, consisting of a strophe of four lines each with four feet

noun

1. usually plural verse written in the Alcaic form

Word History and Origins

Origin of Alcaic¹

1620–30; < Late Latin Alcaicus < Greek Alkaïkós, equivalent to Alka ( îos ) Alcaeus + -ikos -ic

Word History and Origins

Origin of Alcaic¹

C17: from Late Latin Alcaicus of Alcaeus

Example Sentences

Virgilius Mars wrote in hexameters; Horatius Flaccus in alcaic, sapphic, and anapestic verse.

From Project Gutenberg

As a boy of sixteen, he wrote verses in the Alcaic and Asclepiadeian measures, and soon acquired a considerable mastery over them.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus, there is as much artificiality about a stanza of Chinese verse as there is about an Alcaic stanza in Latin.

From Project Gutenberg

Somewhat as in the Greek Alcaic, where the penultimate line seems to lift and suspend the Wave that falls over in the last.

From Project Gutenberg

Of these, four are in hendecasyllabics, one in the Alcaic and one in the Sapphic stanza.

From Project Gutenberg