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Definition of sapphic :
1. A verse.
2. Belonging to, or in the manner of, Sappho; - said of a certain kind of verse reputed to have been invented by Sappho, consisting of five feet, of which the first, fourth, and fifth are trochees, the second is a spondee, and the third a dactyl.
Synonyms:
homosexual, lesbian
Usage examples:
- Next came the turn of Donna Emilia, a very burning poetess, for a Sapphic ode; and so on and so on. - "Little Novels of Italy Madonna Of The Peach-Tree, Ippolita In The Hills, The Duchess Of Nona, Messer Cino And The Live Coal, The Judgment Of Borso", Maurice Henry Hewlett.
- The Sapphic verse, according to Fabricius, Smetius, and all good authorities, has eleven syllables, making " five feet- the first a trochee, the second a spondee, the third a dactyl, and the fourth and fifth trochees." - "The Grammar of English Grammars", Goold Brown.
- 19. This author erroneously supposed, that the trissyllabic foot, in any line of the Sapphic stanza, must occupy the second place: and, judging of the ancient feet and quantities by what he found, or supposed he found, in the English imitations, and not by what the ancient prosodists say of them, yet knowing that the ancient and the modern Sapphics are in several respects unlike, he presented forms of scansion for both, which are not only peculiar to himself, but not well adapted to either. - "The Grammar of English Grammars", Goold Brown.