30 September 2016 – sapphic

30 September 2016

Sapphic

[saf-ik]

adjective

1. pertaining to Sappho or to certain meters or a form of strophe or stanza used by or named after her. (prosody) denoting a metre associated with Sappho, consisting generally of a trochaic pentameter line with a dactyl in the third foot.
2. Lesbian (def 2).
noun
3. a Sapphic verse.

Origin of Sapphic

Latin, Greek
1495-1505; < Latin sapphicus < Greek sapphikós, equivalent to Sapph (ṓ) Sappho + -ikos -ic. Sappho (c620 – c565 BC) was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for Sapphic

Contemporary Examples

No doubt she’s sitting in her Sapphic palace cackling on her money.
Newcomers Invade Emmys
Choire Sicha
August 29, 2010

The game has a long history in media and popular culture, and its depictions have hardly all been Sapphic.
Softball’s Not Just for Lesbians!
Rebecca Dana
May 18, 2010

They would later be dubbed a “bloodthirsty” “lesbian she-wolf pack” and—most famously—“a seething, Sapphic septet.”
‘Out in the Night’ and the Redemption of the ‘Killer Lesbian Gang’
Nina Strochlic
June 20, 2014

Historical Examples

Its essence is flavored with the day and lyric trail of the Sapphic students.
I, Mary MacLane
Mary MacLane

He forgot all about Sappho, but the Sapphic vibrations went on increasingly.
Yellowstone Nights
Herbert Quick

She never summered in soft Sapphic seas, nor hankered after poetic Leucadian promontories.
Unicorns
James Huneker

The influence of the Sapphic legend, I fancy, not alone because of the sweet inversion.
Painted Veils
James Huneker

The Asclepiadeian stanza he employs much less frequently, the Sapphic only once, and that with indifferent success.
Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry
Wilhelm Alfred Braun

Erinna and Damophyla study together the composition of Sapphic metres.
Greek Women
Mitchell Carroll

Lesbian, or Sapphic love is, so Taxel claims, prevalent to an enormous degree among the fashionable ladies of Paris.
Woman and Socialism
August Bebel


Today’s quote

I respect those that tell the truth, no matter how hard it is.

– Prakhar Sahay


On this day

30 September 1947 – birth of Marc Bolan, singer/guitarist for T-Rex. (Born as Mark Feld). Died 16 September 1977.

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