dizain

[ dih-zeyn; French dee-zan ]

noun

, Prosody.

1. a French poem or stanza of ten lines, employing eight or ten syllables to the line and having a specific rhyming pattern, as ababbccdcd.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dizain¹

First recorded in 1565–75; from French; Old French dezen, dizain “tenth, tenth part,” equivalent to dix “ten” (from Latin decem ) + -ain, probably from Latin adjective suffix (plural) -ānī, replacing Latin distributive suffix -ēnī (plural); -an

Example Sentences

Dizain, di-zān′, n. a poem in ten stanzas.

From Project Gutenberg

And—"sixth and lastly"—should confession be made that in the present rendering a purely arbitrary title has been assigned this little book; and chiefly for commercial reasons, since the word "dizain" has been adjudged both untranslatable and, in its pristine form, repellantly outr�.

From Project Gutenberg

And where no authorities exist he merrily invents them, as in the case of his Nicolas of Caen, poet of Normandy, whose tales Dizain des Reines are said to furnish the source for the ten stories collected in Chivalry, and whose largely lost masterpiece Le Roman de Lusignan serves as the basis for Domnei.

From Project Gutenberg

And—“sixth and lastly”—should confession be made that in the present rendering a purely arbitrary title has been assigned this little book; chiefly for commercial reasons, since the word “dizain” has been adjudged both untranslatable and, in its pristine form, repellantly outré.

From Project Gutenberg

So he made of it the thesis for a dizain of beautiful happenings that are almost flawless in their verbal beauty.

From Project Gutenberg