DACTYL


Meaning of DACTYL in English

[ 'daktɪl ]

■ noun Prosody a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables or (in Greek and Latin) one long syllable followed by two short syllables.

Origin

ME: via L. from Gk daktulos , lit. 'finger' (the three bones of the finger corresp. to the three syllables).

Concise Oxford English vocab.      Сжатый оксфордский словарь английского языка.