| 释义 |
tetrameter Pros.|tɪˈtræmɪtə(r)|
[ad. L. tetrametr-us n., a. Gr. τετράµετρ-ος adj., f. τετρα- tetra- + µέτρον measure. So F. tétramètre.]
A verse or period consisting of four measures.
In ancient prosody, a trochaic, iambic, or anapæstic tetrameter consisted of four dipodies (= eight feet); in other rhythms a tetrameter was a tetrapody or period of four feet. The name was given specifically to the Trochaic Tetrameter Catalectic or Septenarius, as in ‘Crās a{vb}mēt quī {vb} nūnqu' a{vb} māvit ‖ quīque a{vb}māvit {vb} crās a mēt'.
1612Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. iv. 67 The first are couplets interchanged of xvi. & xiiii. feet,..the second of equall tetrameters. 1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) p. xli, He makes no difficulty to mingle Hexameters with Iambique Trimeters; or with Trochaique Tetrameters. 1837Wheelwright tr. Aristoph. I. 93, I ask..what thou thinkest the most perfect measure, The trimeter or the tetrameter? 1869H. F. Tozer Highl. Turkey II. 250 The metre..is the iambic tetrameter catalectic.
b. attrib. or as adj.
1770Langhorne Plutarch V. 272 A poem, entitled Pontius Glaucus,..written by him [Cicero], when a boy, in tetrameter verse. 1811Elmsley in Edin. Rev. Nov. 72 To introduce these refractory names into tetrameter trochaics, Aristophanes has twice used a choriambus, and once an ionic a minore, in the place of the regular trochaic dipodia. 1827Tate Grk. Metres §10. |