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catalectic

[ kat-l-ek-tik ]

adjective

  1. (of a line of verse) lacking part of the last foot; metrically incomplete, as the second line of One more unfortunate,/Weary of breath.


noun

  1. a catalectic line of verse.

catalectic

/ ˌkætəˈlɛktɪk /

adjective

  1. prosody (of a line of verse) having an incomplete final foot
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of catalectic1

1580–90; < Late Latin catalēcticus < Greek katalēktikós incomplete, equivalent to katalēk-, variant stem of katalḗgein to leave off ( kata- cata- + lḗgein to end) + -tikos -tic
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Word History and Origins

Origin of catalectic1

C16: via Late Latin from Greek katalēktikos incomplete, from katalēgein, from kata- off + lēgein to stop
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Example Sentences

The former is trochaic—the latter is octameter acatalectic, alternating with heptameter catalectic repeated in the refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrameter catalectic.

Iambic tetrameter catalectic, formed of seven feet and a cæsura at the close of the line.

Here the alternate lines are catalectic, both light syllables being wanting.

The normal line of which these quatrains are composed is a thirteen-syllabled one divided by a central pause, so that the first half is an iambic dimeter catalectic, and the second an iambic dimeter hypercatalectic.

To this edition of “The Unknown Eros” are added all the other poems I have written, in what I venture—because it has no other name—to call “catalectic verse.”

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