Words & WritingGreek → English
Dactyl
/ˈdæktɪl/noun
A metrical foot of one long or stressed syllable followed by two short or unstressed ones.
The Greek roots
δάκτυλος
dáktylos
finger, toe
Literally: “finger”
Follow a root:δάκτυλος5 words
The story of the word
Look at a finger: one long bone from the knuckle, then two short ones. The Greeks named the rhythm after the hand, and it carried the entire Homeric line, six dactyls to a verse, for centuries of recited poetry. English keeps the anatomy elsewhere too, in pterodactyl, the wing-finger, and in the medical dactyl of polydactyly.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
pterodactylpolydactylydate
In a sentence
Longfellow opens Evangeline in dactyls, and the swing of it is unmistakable.