[ad. L. Asclēpiadēus, a. Gr. Ἀσκληπιάδειος, adj. f. Ἀσκληπιάδης name of a Greek poet.] In Greek and Latin prosody: A verse, invented by Asclepiades, consisting of a spondee, two (or three) choriambi, and an iambus. Also attrib. Hence the adjs.: † Asclepiadic (also used subst.), † Asclepiadical, Asclepiadean.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.
1876. Kennedy, Pub. Sch. Lat. Gram., § 265. Of the Asclepiad … Horace employed five systems. Ibid. A stanza composed of three lesser Asclepiad verses.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., I. viii. 17 a. Meters … hath their name, eyther … of the inuentour as Æsclepiadicall.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 229. Singing these verses called Asclepiadikes.
1652. Marbury, Comm. Habakkuk (1865), 156. Verses, heroic, iambic, asclepiadic [printed -idiac].
1706. Phillips, Asclepiadean.
1860. Schmitz, Lat. Gram., 306. The second Asclepiadean metre.
