rhythmic, a. and n.
(ˈrɪðmɪk, ˈrɪθmɪk)
Also 7 r(h)ythmicke, -ique, 8–9 rythmic.
[ad. F. rhythmique or L. rhythmicus, a. Gr. ῥυθµικός, f. ῥυθµός rhythm.]
A. adj.
1. = rhythmical 3. a. Of language, verse, music. Also appositively, as rhythmic-melodic adj.
| a 1631 Donne Litany viii. Poems (1633) 175 Those heavenly Poets which did see Thy will, and it expresse In rythmique feet. 1840 Carlyle Heroes ii. (1841) 105 Much of it, too,..is rhythmic; a kind of wild chanting song. 1864 Hadley Ess. (1873) 95 The portion of time thus marked off by an intension and a remission of effort is a rhythmic foot. 1875 Ouseley Mus. Form i. 2 The power and importance of symmetry and Rhythmic balance. 1889 Farrar Lives Fathers I. iii. 96 note, The words are rhythmic. They consist of two sonorous epitrites. 1946 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets ii. 36 The..principle of free rhythmic-melodic improvisation. 1970 P. Oliver Savannah Syncopators 55 Repeated rhythm patterns and rhythmic-melodic patterns..such as are characteristic of boogie-woogie and blues piano. |
b. Phys. and Path. (See rhythm n. 7 b.)
| 1843 Wilkinson tr. Swedenborg's Anim. Kingd. I. xiii. 399 The intestines do not creep through their rhythmic movements. 1881 Nature 30 June 202/2 Rhythmic Contraction of Voluntary Muscles. |
c. Of motion, feeling; of natural forces, etc.
| 1862 Tyndall Mountaineer. ii. 91 The cataract..plunging in rhythmic gushes down the shining rocks. 1873 G. C. Davies Mount. & Mere xxiv. 206 The rhythmic rattling of the train. 1883 J. A. Symonds Ital. Byways i. 3 A dozen Italian workmen..tramping in rhythmic stride. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col.-Reformer (1891) 138 The..rhythmic plash of the wavelets on the beach. |
d. transf. and fig.
| 1840 Carlyle Heroes iii. 177 The great salient points are admirably seized; all rounds itself off, into a kind of rhythmic coherence. 1874 L. Morris Songs of Two Worlds, Remonstrance vii, Not all of life Is rhythmic; oft by level ways We walk. |
2. = rhythmical 4.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1259 All the Rhythmike skill. 1819 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XLVIII. 307 So insufficient seems an individual life for so much rhythmic effusion. 1866 Chamb. Encycl. VIII. 243/1 A musical composition is made up of portions of equal rhythmic value, called measures. 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. 145 Its most rhythmic genius, its acutest intellect. |
3. Geol. and Physical Geogr. Exhibiting or characterized by a spatial rhythm or periodicity.
| 1914 C. B. Crampton et al. Geol. of Caithness ix. 89 In the Helman Head Beds the rhythmic sequence is confined to continental, alluvial, and lacustrine deposits. 1960 Turner & Verhoogen Igneous & Metamorphic Petrol. (ed. 2) xi. 292 Gravitational settling of heavy dark minerals within the layer of mush carpeting the floor..is thought to be responsible for the rhythmic layering so widely prevalent in the lower levels. 1976 P. D. Komar Beach Processes & Sedimentation x. 265 Attempts at classifying rhythmic shoreline features generally stress their spacings. Beach cusps are considered to have smaller spacings.., while sand waves..and giant cusps have larger spacings. |
B. n. The science or theory of rhythm.
(Cf. Gr. ῥυθµική, F. rhythmique, G. rhythmik.)
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1260 Neither the Harmonique, nor the Rhythmicke, nor any one of these faculties of Musicke, which is named particular. 1759–60 Phil. Trans. LI. 730 To harmonic, rhythmic, and metric, in the theoretic, respectively answered melopœïa, rhythmopœïa, and poetic, in the practic. 1864 Hadley Ess. (1873) 94 The classical rhythmic of Pindar, Simonides, æschylus. 1879 J. W. White title [tr. J. H. H. Schmidt], An Introduction to the Rhythmic and Metric of the Classical Languages. |
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Add: [A.] 4. Special collocation: rhythmic gymnastics n. pl. (usu. const. as sing.), gymnastics performed in a rhythmical manner, esp. incorporating dance-like routines and performed with ribbons, hoops, or other accessories (often as a competitive sport); cf. eurhythmic n.
| 1912 Standard 27 Nov. 9/5 Eurythmics [sic] is a word which Professor Jacques-Dalcroze has invented to describe his ‘rhythmic gymnastics’. a 1975 in K. Kjeldsen Women's Gymnastics (ed. 2) 92 (record title) Music for teaching rhythmic gymnastics. 1989 Daily Tel. 4 Nov. 36/4 (caption) Bianca Panova.., the Bulgarian champion, practising..for the Rhythmic Gymnastics International at Wembley Conference Centre tomorrow. |