1830 B. Thorpe tr. R. K. Rask Gram. Anglo-Saxon Tongue 139 Line-Rime is when two syllables, in the same line of verse, have their vowels and the consonants following them alike, which is called perfect rime (consonances), or unlike vowels, and only the following consonants the same, which is called half rime (assonances).

1860 G. P. Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. xxv. 553 In Icelandic poetry,..imperfect rhyme is regularly employed, and..is called skothendíng,..which we may conveniently translate by half-rhyme.

1860 G. P. Marsh Lect. Eng. Lang. xxv. 560 Although half-rhyme may be said to be peculiar to Icelandic poetry,..yet there are examples of the employment of both full and imperfect line-rhymes in modern English.

c1873–4 G. M. Hopkins Note-bks. & Papers (1937) 243 In Icelandic verse an opposite kind of alliteration (skothendíng) is made use of, namely ending with the same consonant but after a different vowel, as ‘bad’ ‘led’, ‘find’ ‘band’, ‘sin’ ‘run’ (from Marsh, who calls it half-rhyme).

1886 J. M. D. Meiklejohn Eng. Lang. ii. 186 The English language is very poor in rhymes, when compared with Italian or German. Accordingly, half-rhymes are admissible..: sun/gone, love/move, allow/bestow, etc.

1936 M. Roberts Faber Bk. Mod. Verse 28 In Owen's war poetry, the half-rhymes almost invariably fall from a vowel of high pitch to one of low pitch.