paeon

American  

[pee-uhn, -on] / ˈpi ən, -ɒn /

noun

1. Classical Prosody. a foot of one long and three short syllables in any order.

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paeon British  

/ ˈpiːən /

noun

1. prosody a metrical foot of four syllables, with one long one and three short ones in any order

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Other Word Forms

• paeonic adjective

Etymology

Origin of paeon

1595–1605; < Latin paeōn < Greek paiōn, Attic variant of paiā́n; paean

Example Sentences

“Little in Love” is an upbeat paeon to being with someone to share your life with, while “The Good Life” is an uptempo examination of what is truly important.

From Washington Times

And then the movie – like all the great John Hughes movies, a paeon to the ambiguities of youth; the pleasures, the agonisies, the clothes, oh sweet Jesus the clothes.

From The Guardian

Soon those daffodils will raise their golden trumpets and will sound the fanfare at the opening of the Great Jubilee, and up will spring two hundred thousand wide-eyed yellow pansies to look and wonder at the marvelous beauty, and help in the hallelujah chorus that will be one great paeon of joy, one splendid hymn of praise.

From Project Gutenberg

Instead it is a heart-wringing paeon to homesickness.

From The Guardian

It has one stress, which falls on the only syllable, if there is only one, or, if there are more, then scanning as above, on the first, and so gives rise to four sorts of feet, a monosyllable and the so-called accentual Trochee, Dactyl, and the First Paeon.

From Project Gutenberg