Words & WritingGreek → English
Hexameter
/hɛkˈsæmɪtər/noun
A verse line of six metrical feet, the standard meter of Greek and Latin epic.
The Greek roots
ἕξ
héx
six
μέτρον
métron
measure
Literally: “six measures”
The story of the word
Homer, Hesiod and Virgil all run on it, five dactyls and a closing pair, with spondees allowed as substitutions almost anywhere except the fifth foot. Greek meter counts syllable length rather than stress, so Longfellow's English hexameters in Evangeline sound nothing like the original machine. The last two feet stay nearly fixed, which gives every line an audible landing.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
hexagonpentametermetricdiameter
In a sentence
Scan the first line of the Iliad and the hexameter falls out of it immediately.