[ad. L. Crētic-us of Crete, Cretan, f. Crēta Crete.]
A. adj. Belonging to Crete, Cretan; applied in Gr. and Lat. prosody to a particular metrical foot, or to verse characterized by these. B. sb. (without capital) A metrical foot consisting of one short syllable between two long; = AMPHIMACER.
[1586. W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 69. Creticus of a long, a short, and a long, [as] daungerous.]
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., lxviii. 1257. The Prosodiaque & also the Creticke.
1697. Bentley, Phal. (1699), 140 (T.). The first Verse here ends with a Trochee, and the third with a Cretic.
1867. Jebb, Sophocles’ Electra (1870), 39/1. Although τῶνδέ μοι form a cretic foot, a spondee is still admissible in the 5th place, because the word γάρ preceding the cretic is a monosyllable.
1885. Gildersleeve, Pindar, Introd. 73. The passionate cretics that abound in that … play [the Acharnians].
