dactyl, n.
(ˈdæktɪl)
Also 5 -ylle, 5–6 -ile, 6 -il, -ill, 7–9 -yle.
[ad. (perh. through F. dactyle) L. dactylus, a. Gr. δάκτυλος, a finger, a date, a dactyl (from its 3 joints).]
† 1. The fruit of the date-palm; a date. Obs.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxvi. (1495) 678 The frute of the palme is callyd Dactulus.] 1483 Cath. Angl. 88 A Dactylle fute (fruytt A.), dactilis. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Formularye X ij b, Powdre of dactiles. 1644 Bulwer Chirol. A iij, Thus while the gratefull Age offer whole springs Of Palme, my zeale an humble Dactyle brings. 1656 in Blount Glossogr. |
2. Prosody. A metrical foot consisting of a long syllable followed by two short (or, in modern verse, of an accented syllable and two unaccented).
| c 1420 Wyclif Bible, Job Prol. (1850) II. 671 Vers of sixe feet, rennende with dactile and sponde feet. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 71 The French..hath not one word, that hath his accent in..Antepenultima, and little more hath the Spanish: and therefore, verie gracelesly may they vse Dactiles. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xiv. (Arb.) 140 This distique..standing all vpon perfect dactils. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 13 If..upon the first scanning, he knows a sponde from a dactyl..A forward boy! cries the school-master. 1779 Burney in Phil. Trans. LXIX. 196 If he discovers a partiality for any particular measure, it is for dactyls of one long and two short notes. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. ii. v. §92 The first foot of each verse is generally a dactyle. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 30. |
3. A mollusc, the piddock (Pholas dactylus).
| 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 442 The Dactyle Pholas. |
4. a. A finger or toe. b. = dactylopodite. c. A part of the pretarsus of an insect.
| 1889 Cent. Dict., Dactyl, a digit, whether of the hand or foot. 1946 Nature 9 Nov. 668/2 In ecdysis, any available rough surface is used to anchor the dactyl-claws of the walking legs. 1960 T. H. Waterman Physiol. Crustacea I. xvii. 564 In this crab autotomy never results after injury to the dactyl, the most distal segment of a walking leg. |