adjective
Etymology
Origin of spondaic
1715–25; < Late Latin spondaicus, metathetic variant of spondīacus < Greek spondeiakós, equivalent to spondeî ( os ) spondee + -akos, variant of -ikos -ic
Vocabulary lists containing spondaic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The result so far attained has been unsatisfactory, for the rhythms are all given as spondaic.
From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
All the chorals that carry it have substantially the same movement—for the spondaic accent of the long lines is compulsory—but their offerings sing “to one clear harp in divers tones.”
From The Story of the Hymns and Tunes by Brown, Theron
If a line ends with two spondees it is a spondaic hexameter.
From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
Reisk.; although, according to Hephæstion, the laconicum metrum was a tetrameter catalecticus in syllabam, with a spondaic ending; and according to M. Victorinus ubi sup. a trimeter catalecticus in syllabam.1581.B.
From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 2 of 2 by Müller, Karl Otfried
There is in its slow spondaic movement an eternity of tears.
From Robert Burns Famous Scots Series by Setoun, Gabriel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
