| 释义 |
hexameter, a. and n.|hɛkˈsæmɪtə(r)|
Also (4 exametron(e, -oun, -ytron), 6–7 hexametre, exameter.
[a. L. hexameter adj. and (sc. versus) n., ad. Gr. ἑξάµετρ-ος, f. ἑξα- hexa- + µέτρον measure, metre. Cf. F. hexamètre (1511).]
A. adj. (Now only as attrib. use of n.)
1. Pros. Consisting of six metrical feet; esp. of the form of the dactylic hexameter.
1546Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. i. viii. 16 a, A songe of Exameter Verses. 1601Holland Pliny I. 189 The heroick or hexametre verse we acknowledge to haue come first from the Oracle of Pythius Apollo. 1611Florio, Hesametro, an exameter verse. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v., Some of the French and English poets have attempted to compose in hexameter verses, but without success. 1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope (Mason), In hexameter and pentameter verse.
b. Composing or writing hexameters.
1837Syd. Smith Let. to Singleton Wks. 1859 II. 289/1 A vast receptacle for hexameter and pentameter boys.
†2. humorously of an insect: Having six feet.
1652J. Taylor (Water P.) Journ. Wales (1859) 11 Embrodered all over with such hexameter poudred ermins (or vermin) as are called lice in England.
B. n. A ‘verse’ or line of six metrical feet; esp. the dactylic hexameter (catalectic), which in the typical form consists of five dactyls and a trochee, or (in Latin poets) more commonly a spondee; for any or all of the first four dactyls spondees may be substituted, but in the fifth foot a spondee is admitted only for special effect.
In English and German hexameters, stress is substituted for length in the first syllable of each foot; but it is often sought to combine with this an observance of quantity.
c1386Chaucer Monk's T. 91 They ben versified communely Of vj. feet which men clepen Exametron [v. rr. exametroun, examytron, exametrone]. 1579E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. May, Emblem, These Emblemes make one whole Hexametre. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. lv. 77 These 6 notes, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La,..are all comprehended in this Exameter, ‘Ut Relevet Miserum Fatum Solitosque Labores’. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 88 ⁋10 We have already tried and rejected the hexameter of the ancients. a1834Coleridge Ovidian Elegiac Metre Wks. 1877 II. 344 In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column, In the pentameter aye falling in melody back. —— Note Poet. Wks. (1893) 614/2 The following verse from the Psalms is a rare instance of a perfect hexameter..in the English language:—Gōd cāme {vb} ūp wĭth ă {vb} shōut : oūr {vb} Lōrd wĭth thĕ {vb} soūnd ŏf ă {vb} trūmpĕt. 1868Tennyson Lucretius 11 Fancy-borne perhaps upon the rise And long roll of the Hexameter. 1870Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 272 The feeble and tuneless form of metre called hexameters in English.
b. Comb.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe 4 Such a nigling Hexameter⁓founder as he [Homer] was. |