Dictionary

paroemiac en · NOUN

Etymology

From Ancient Greek παροιμιακόν (paroimiakón, noun) and παροιμιακός (paroimiakós, adjective), from παροιμία (paroimía, “proverb”).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A catalectic anapestic dimeter.
   • Two successive paroemiacs were admissible only in anapaests of this 'free' or lyric character (n. on 86—120). These paroemiacs are purely spondaic; as 'free' anapaests also admitted the converse license, of resolving the long syllables, except the last, of the paroemiac. 1894, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments - Volume 6, page 20:
   • It might be objected that the ratio depends on the exigencies of the drama, that e.g. short anapaestic passages of only half-a-dozen or so metra plus their paroemiac might be required in some plays, not in others, and thus lower the ratio for those plays. 2007, Mark Griffith, The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound, →ISBN, page 72:
   • The metrical differences between march and melic anapaests are differences in respect of feet, caesura, continuity, use of the paroemiac, and catalexis. 1896, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology - Volume 7, page 142:

Forms