Distichon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A pair of lines of verse forming a single metrical unit, especially the elegiac couplet of classical Greek and Latin poetry
2. A couplet made up of two verse lines that together form one complete metrical unit in ancient Greek and Roman poetry
3. A poetic unit consisting of two lines, most often a dactylic hexameter followed by a pentameter as in classical elegy

Etymology: A "distichon" is a pair of lines of verse that together form a complete unit, and the word comes straight from Greek. It is the Latinized form of "distichon" (δίστιχον), built from "dis" meaning "twice" and "stichos" meaning "row" or "line" of verse, so the literal sense is "two rows." The Greek word "stichos" is also the source of the English "stich," a single line of poetry, which makes "distichon" a sort of doubled line. English borrowed the term directly from Latin, where it was used by Roman writers for the elegiac couplet, a pair of hexameter and pentameter lines. Because that couplet was the classic meter of Ovid and other elegists, the word became a standard label in discussions of Greek and Latin poetry. Its use in English is largely confined to classical scholarship and prosody, and it dates from the early modern period, when English scholars adopted Latin terminology for verse forms.

Synonyms: couplet, distich