pæon
(ˈpiːən)
Also 7–8 pæan.
[a. L. pæon, ad. Gr. παιών: see pæan.]
A metrical foot of four syllables, one long and three short, named, according to the position of the long syllable, a first, second, third, or fourth pæon.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch Explan. Words, Pæon or Pæeon, the name of Apollo, and of a metricall foot in verse, of which Pæans are composed. 1699 Bentley Phal. 459 The Poet was constrain'd of mere necessity to use a Pæon instead of a Dactyl. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Paean or Paeon..so called, as commonly supposed, because appropriated to the hymn Pæan; though Quintilian derives the name from its inventor Pæon, a physician. 1867 R. C. Jebb Sophocles' Electra (1870) 125/2 The antistrophic verse has a paeon..in the first place. |