Words & WritingGreek → English
Spondee
/ˈspɒndiː/noun
A metrical foot of two long or stressed syllables.
The Greek roots
σπονδεῖος
spondeîos
of a libation
σπονδή
spondḗ
drink offering, libation
Literally: “belonging to the libation”
The story of the word
The foot is named for the slow music played while wine was poured out to the gods, two heavy beats with nothing light between them. σπονδή in the plural also meant a truce, because treaties were sealed with a libation, so the same word covers a drink offering and an armistice. English gets its weight in phrases like heartbreak or dead weight, where neither syllable will give way.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
dactylanapaesttrochee
In a sentence
The line ends on a spondee and simply stops moving.