a. and sb. Also 8 -aick. [ad. F. spondaïque (16th c.; = It. spondaico, Sp. and Pg. espondaico), or L. spondaic-us (see SPONDIAC a.). Cf. G. spondäisch.]
A. adj. 1. Of verses (or parts of these): a. Composed of spondees. b. Having a spondee in positions where a different foot is normal; esp. of hexameters, having a spondee in the fifth foot.
1722–7. Boyer, Dict. Royal, I. Spondaïque,… a spondaick Verse.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Spondee, There are also Spondee or Spondaic Verses; that is, Verses composed wholly of Spondees, or at least that end with Two Spondees.
1789. M. Madan, trans. Persius (1795), 34, note. The end of this verse is spondaic.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XV. 254/2. An hexameter line … when regular and not spondaic … never has fewer than thirteen [syllables].
1847. Proc. Philol. Soc., III. 105. The same argument may be drawn from the construction of spondaic anapæstic verses.
1861. Paley, Aeschylus (ed. 2), Persians, 32, note. On the spondaic termination see Suppl. 7.
2. Characterized by a spondee or spondees.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 94, ¶ 10. This at least was the power of the spondaick and dactylick harmony.
1773. Melmoth, trans. Cicero, Old Age, 193. A certain piece of musick composed in solemn spondaic measures.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 385. The Trochaic, Iambic, or Spondaic [movement].
1869. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1875), III. 225. I do not know the meaning of this strange epithet and spondaic cadence.
3. Of words: Consisting of two long syllables.
a. 1849. Poe, Longf., etc. Wks. 1864, III. 364. Our spondees, or, we should say, our spondaic words are rare.
B. sb. A spondaic foot or line.
1839. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., Frogs, 357, note. On the anapæstic spondaics which follow, see Hermann.
