hemistich

[ hem-i-stik ]

noun

, Prosody.

1. the exact or approximate half of a stich, or poetic verse or line, especially as divided by a caesura or the like.
2. an incomplete line, or a line of less than the usual length.

hemistich

/ ˈhɛmɪˌstɪk /

noun

1. prosody a half line of verse

Other Words From

• he·mis·ti·chal [h, uh, -, mis, -ti-k, uh, l, hem, -i-stik-, uh, l], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of hemistich¹

1565–75; < Late Latin hēmistichium < Greek hēmistíchion a half-verse. See hemi-, stich ¹

Example Sentences

Hemistich, hem′i-stik, n. one of the two parts of a line of poetry as divided by the cesura: half a line, an incomplete or unfinished line: an epodic line or refrain.—adj.

From Project Gutenberg

His principal work is the Dīwān, that is, a collection of short odes or sonnets called ghazals, and consisting of from five to sixteen baits or couplets each, all the couplets in each ode having the same rhyme in the last hemistich, and the last couplet always introducing the poet’s own nom de plume.

From Project Gutenberg

And is not Sir Thomas Hammer quite correct in expression, when he alters the hemistich into "Wilt drink up Nile?"

From Project Gutenberg

In the black church, however, the appeal is primarily to the ear – the preacher taking a formulaic sermon and using a variety of oratorical techniques to conjure a kind of devotional intensity: improvisation, repetition, reinforcement, dramatic pauses, hemistich cadence, parallelism, the act of call-and-response harnessing that relationship between the preacher and the congregation, the individual and the community.

From The Guardian

The Luccan and Umbrian stornello is much shorter, consisting indeed of a hemistich having some natural object which suggests the motive of the little poem.

From Project Gutenberg