a. and sb. Also 8 Sotadick. [ad. L. Sōtadic-us, f. Sōtadēs, Gr. Σωτάδης: see def.]
A. sb. 1. A satire after the manner of Sotades, an ancient Greek poet noted for the coarseness and scurrility of his writings.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. 1851, IV. 378. Perhaps, as the provocation may bee, I may bee driv’n to curle up this gliding prose into a rough Sotadic.
1836. Fraser’s Mag., XIII. 742. Neither would the keenest bit of satire be a legitimate ‘sotadic,’ without that dash of turbulence in it, and sweeping denunciation.
2. Pros. A catalectic tetrameter composed of Ionics a majore.
1830. Seager, trans. Hermann’s Elem. Doctr. Metres, 97. He [Plautus] has Sotadics in Aul. ii, 1, 30. sq. iii, 2. Amph. i, 1, 14. sq.
B. adj. 1. Characterized by a coarseness or scurrility like that of Sotades.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. To Rdr. p. xlv. Which favour was … deservedly refus’d to most Necromantick Sotadick and Arian Libels, by the common consent of all Christians.
2. Capable of being read in reverse order; palindromic.
a. 1814[?]. T. Brown, in D. Welsh, Life, vii. (1825), 349–50. The second syllable is … the sound reversed, like the reading of a sotadic line.
1862. H. B. Wheatley, Anagrams, 9. Palindromic verses are also sometimes called Sotadic verses.
3. Pros. (See quot. and A. 2.)
1830. Seager, trans. Hermann’s Elem. Doctr. Metres, 96. The most noted of Ionic verses à majori is the Sotadic, constructed for recitation only.
So Sotadical a. rare.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, XVII. xv. 642. Sotadicall verses: that is verses backward and forwards.
