Pros. Also 7–9 tetrastic(h)on, (pl. -a); 7–8 tetrastic, -sticke,. 7–9 -stick. [ad. L. tetrastichon a quatrain, a. Gr. τετράστιχον, neut. of τετράστιχος containing four rows, f. τετρα-, TETRA- + στίχος row, line of verse. Cf. F. tétrastiche, -ique.] A stanza of four lines.
1580. Spenser, Lett. to Harvey, Wks. (Globe), App. ii. 709/1. Here I let you see my olde use of toying in Rymes turned into your artificial straightnesse of Verse by this Tetrasticon.
1625. Ussher, Answ. Jesuit, 325. Therefore doth Theodorus Prodromus begin his Tetrastich upon our Saviours Resurrection.
1702. Burlesque of R. L’Estrange’s Vis. Quev., 62. What Man though always in the Pouts The following Tetrastick doubts?
1779. Johnson, L. P., Milton, Wks. II. 92. Selvaggi praised him in a distich, and Salsilli in a tetrastick: neither of them of much value.
1824. Johnson, Typogr., I. 330. The last page, on which are an Epistle and Tetrastichon in Roman.
1865. R. Palmer, Bk. Praise, 489. The two tetrastichs composing the first stanza are transposed.
Hence Tetrastichal, Tetrastichic adjs., of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a tetrastich, or consisting of tetrastichs; Tetrastichism, the formation of tetrastichs.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 1955. The alphabetical psalm (XXXVII) … is almost entirely tetrastichic.
1890. G. Bickell, in Athenæum, 22 Nov., 700/3. There are hexastichic strophes throughout Prov. xxx … and tetrastichic ones in i. 7–ix. 18.
1895. Q. Rev., Jan., 128. A tetrastichal metre should be chosen.
1898. R. Ellis, in Classical Rev., XII. 120. The process which Rutherford … aptly calls tetrastichism, i. e. reduction of a larger original to a total of four verses.
