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Dactyl

//ˈdæktɪl// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A metrical foot of three syllables (— ⏑ ⏑), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented.

    "Now the Bard, glad to get an audience, […] / stuck fast with his first hexameter, / Not one of all whose gouty feet would stir. // But ere the spavin'd dactyls could be spurr'd / Into recitative, in great dismay / Both cherubim and seraphim were heard / To murmur loudly through their long array; […]"

  2. 2
    a finger or toe in human beings or corresponding body part in other vertebrates wordnet
  3. 3
    a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables wordnet

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dactylus, from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”), three bones of the finger corresponding to three syllables. Doublet of dactylus and date.

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