— anapestic, anapaestic , adj. — anapestically, anapaestically , adv.
/an"euh pest'/ , n. Pros.
a foot of three syllables, two short followed by one long in quantitative meter, and two unstressed followed by one stressed in accentual meter, as in for the nonce. Also, anapaest .
[ 1580-90; anapaestus anápaistos struck back, reversed (as compared with a dactyl), equiv. to ana- ANA- + pais- (var. s. of paíein to strike) + -tos ptp. suffix ]