Also -us, -ys, -ee. [ad. L. amphibrachus, -ys, a. Gr. ἀμφίβραχυς short at both ends, and subst. the foot so called, f. ἀμφί on both sides + βραχύς short. Long used in the L. forms; amphibrachee seems due to form-assoc. with spondee, trochee. In Eng. form in Craig, 1847.]
In Gr. and L. prosody, a foot consisting of a long between two short syllables, as ămātă. Sometimes applied in modern prosody to an accented syllable between two unaccented, as conse·nted, drama·tic.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 134. For your foote amphibracchus … ye haue these wordes and many like to these [rĕsīstĕd] [dĕlīghtfŭll].
1749. [J. Mason], Numbers in Poet. Comp., 19. Amphibrachys ˘–˘ is an lambic ˘– and half Pyrrhic ˘.
a. 1771. Gray, Corr. (1843), 260. A free verse of eleven or twelve syllables, which may consist of four Amphibrachees … so Prior: ‘As Chlōĕ căme īntŏ thĕ rōom t’ŏthĕr dāy.’
1807. Coleridge, One syllable long, with one short at each side, Amphībrăchȳs hāstes wīth ă stātĕly strīde.
1858. Marsh, Lect. Eng. Lang., xxiv. 524. Theoretically we may consider the prosody of the Ormulum as composed of verses of six iambics and an amphibrach.
