semi-pedsemi-peden.
Prosody.
A half-foot.
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semi-ped1756
1756 T. Sheridan Brit. Educ. (1761) 317 An English heroick verse is composed of ten semipeds, or syllables.
1798 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 4) iv. 218 Day″ nor the sweet approach of even or morn. Here the cæsura after the first semipede Day, stops us unexpectedly.
1907 T. S. Omond Eng. Metrists 12 The first six lines of Paradise Lost, each of which consists of ten ‘semi-peds’.
Derivatives
semipedal adj. [Latin sēmipedālis] rare Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > metre > [adjective] > composed in feet > half-foot
semipedal1658
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Semipedal, consisting of half a foot in measure.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1911; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1658