mimiamb

From mimiambus, possibly from French mimiambe, from Ancient Greek μιμιάμβους (mimiámbous, “mime-iamb”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “actor, imitator”) + ἴαμβος (íambos, “iamb”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪmɪam(b)/, /ˈmʌɪ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪmiˌæm(b)/, /ˈmaɪ-/
• Hyphenation: mim‧i‧amb

mimiamb (plural mimiambs)

1. (literature, Ancient Greece, rare) A short humorous dramatic scene in verse.
   • 1891 November 28, The Athenæum, number 3344, London: J. Lection, →OCLC, page 726:

     Its discovery, after a sleep of some five centuries and a half, will be as great a surprise to meteorologists as a new classical text, such as the ‘Mimiambs’ of Herondas, to Greek scholars.

   • 1917, Ph E Legrand, translated by James Loeb, The New Greek Comedy, London: W. Heinemann; New York, N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons, →OCLC, page 524:

     For example, the school scene in the third mimiamb, the outburst of fierce jealousy on the part of Bitinna in Herondas and that of the Oxyrhynchus μοιχευτρία, the obscene conversation in the sixth mimiamb, and the tales of adultery committed by women which, according to Aristocles, formed the chief subject of the poems recited by the λυσιῳδοί.

   • 2014, Costas Panayotakis, “Hellenistic Mime and Its Reception in Rome”, in Michael Fontaine, Adele C. Scafuro, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Comedy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 387:

     Matius's mimiambs have not survived complete, but the extant remains may not be unrepresentative of his general style of writing.

• mimiambus

• mimiambic