Words & WritingGreek → English
Anapaest
/ˈænəpiːst/noun
A metrical foot of two short or unstressed syllables followed by a long or stressed one.
The Greek roots
ἀνά
aná
back, up
παίω
paíō
to strike, beat
Literally: “struck back”
The story of the word
The name means struck backwards because it is a dactyl reversed, the beat coming at the end instead of the start. Greek marching songs used it, and its forward drive still suits anything with momentum: the night before Christmas, the Assyrian coming down like the wolf on the fold. Comic poets used long anapaestic runs for the section where the chorus turned and lectured the audience directly.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
dactylanatomyanachronism
In a sentence
Once she heard the anapaests she could not read the poem at any other speed.