dactyl

See also: dactyl-

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Dactyl

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• dactyle, dactile

Etymology

A dactyl is like a finger, having one long part followed by two short stretches.

From Latin dactylus, from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “a finger”), three bones of the finger corresponding to three syllables.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdæktɪɫ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

dactyl (plural dactyls)

1. A metrical foot of three syllables (— ⏑ ⏑), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 4:

     —My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has a Hellenic ring, hasn't it?

Derived terms

• cephalopolysyndactyly
• dactylar
• dactylist
• double dactyl
• leptodactylous
• paradactylum

 

Related terms

• dactylic
• polydactyl

Translations

poetical foot of three syllables

Armenian: ստեղն (hy) (steġn) Catalan: dàctil (ca) m Danish: daktyl c Dutch: dactylus (nl) m Esperanto: daktilo Faroese: rættur tríliður m Finnish: daktyyli (fi) French: dactyle (fr) m Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Daktylus (de) m Greek: δάκτυλος (el) m (dáktylos) Ancient: δάκτυλος m (dáktulos) Irish: dachtal m Italian: dattilo (it) m Japanese: please add this translation if you can Latin: dactylus m Occitan: dactil m Polish: daktyl (pl) m Portuguese: dátilo (pt) m Russian: да́ктиль (ru) m (dáktilʹ) Spanish: dáctilo m Swahili: please add this translation if you can Swedish: daktyl (sv) c Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

See also

• anapest
• spondee
• finger