alexandrine
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See also: Alexandrine
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle French alexandrin.[1] So called from its use in old French poems on Alexander the Great (Roman d'Alexandre, c. 1177).[2]
Noun
alexandrine (plural alexandrines)
- (poetry) A line of poetic meter having twelve syllables, usually divided into two or three equal parts.
- Synonym: Alexandrian
- 2005, Rachel Killick, “Baudelaire's versification: conservative or radical?”, in Rosemary Lloyd, editor, The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 52:
- The dominant metre in Les Fleurs du Mal is the twelve-syllable alexandrine, the defining metre of French versification, with the eight-syllable line a distant runner-up and the ten-syllable line barely visible.
Related terms
Translations
line of a twelve-syllable poetic meter
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References
- ^ “alexandrine, adj.2 and n.2”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000, archived from the original on 2023-10-20.
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “alexandrine”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
French
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Adjective
alexandrine