11 August 2016
spondee
[spon-dee]
noun, Prosody.
1. a foot of two syllables, both of which are long in quantitative meter or stressed in accentual meter. Symbol: .
Origin of spondee
Middle English Latin Greek
1350-1400; Middle English sponde < Latin spondēus < Greek spondeîos, derivative of spondḗ libation
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for spondee
Historical Examples
The rudiment of verse may, possibly, be found in the spondee.
– Edgar Allan Poe
Pain is always by the side of joy, the spondee by the dactyl.
Notre-Dame de Paris
Victor Hugo
There is, in fact, no such thing as a spondee in ordinary speech.
The Voice and Spiritual Education
Hiram Corson
Again we find, especially in dactyllic and anapestic lines, a trochee or spondee thrown in to vary the movement.
Rhymes and Meters
Horatio Winslow
But in all the feet except the fifth, a spondee ( ) may take the place of the dactyl.
New Latin Grammar
Charles E. Bennett
The Doric steps consisted primarily of a trochee and a spondee, or time.
Critical & Historical Essays
Edward MacDowell
Now the medium of these is about fourteen syllables; because the dactyle is a more frequent foot in hexameters than the spondee.
Dryden’s Works (13 of 18): Translations; Pastorals
John Dryden
Anagram
speed on
deep son
Today’s quote
I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.
– Edith Sitwell
On this day
11 August 3114BC – ok, so there is an argument that the month of August didn’t exist in 3114BC, but humour me … some mathemetician type has calculated the equivalent Mesoamerican date using the Gregorian calendar and determined that it was on this day that the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, (aka the Mayan Calendar) came into being. It was used by a number of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. Oddly enough, the creation of the calendar wasn’t a problem. The problem has arisen with the lack of fore-thought on the end-date. Inconveniently, some inconsiderate Mesoamerican culture (let’s blame the Mayans) decided the calendar would end on 21 December 2012, which has caused a little consternation amongst some of the inhabitants of Earth, who fear the calendar ends on that date because the world ends on that date … considering that the earth has managed to survive beyond 21/12/12, speculation is rife that perhaps the calendar ended on that date because its creator got bored, or was called in for dinner, or went hunting sabre-tooth tigers and never returned …
11 August 480BC – death of Leonidas, King of Sparta, famous for the Battle of Thermopylae in which he led an Army of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans and managed to hold off Persian Army (estimated to be at least 100,000 strong) led by Xerxes. Leonidas was eventually over-run and killed. He would have been stoked to know a Hollywood movie would be made about him in 1962 and again in 2006. Born c. 540BC.
11 August 1897 – birth of Enid Blyton, British author of numerous series of children’s stories, including ‘Noddy‘, ‘Famous Five‘, and ‘Secret Seven‘. Died 28 November 1968.
11 August 1921 – birth of Alex Haley, U.S. author of ‘Roots‘, ‘Malcolm X‘. Died 10 February 1992.
11 August 1945 – Japan offers surrender, conditional on the retention of their Emperor, Hirohito. The U.S. rejects the offer, demanding that Emperor Hirohito subject himself to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
11 August 1994 – death of Peter Cushing OBE,English actor who mostly appeared in Hammer Horror films, including The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula (in which he played vampire hunter, Van Helsing). Born 26 May 1913.