| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| anapest |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | an·a·pest |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   n  -p st |
| VARIANT FORMS: | also an·a·paest |
| NOUN: | 1. A metrical foot composed of two short syllables followed by one long one, as in the word seventeen. 2. A line of verse using this meter; for example, “’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house” (Clement Clarke Moore). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin anapaestus, from Greek anapaistos : ana-, ana- + paiein, pais-, to strike (so called because an anapest is a reversed dactyl); see pau-2 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | ana·pestic —ADJECTIVE
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
