cretic

alternative obsolete cretick · alternative obsolete creticke

1. not comparableUsing or relating to a metrical pattern of poetry where each foot is composed of three syllables, the first and third of which are stressed and the second of which is unstressed.

   The cretic pattern is very rare in English poetry.

plural cretics · alternative obsolete cretick · alternative obsolete creticke

1. A metrical foot of this kind.

   5. Creticus of a long, a ſhort, and a long, ﹘⏑﹘ daungerous.

   [1586, VVilliam VVebbe, edited by Edward Arber, A Diſcourſe of Engliſh Poetrie (English Reprints), Westminster: A. Constable & Co., published 1895, page 69

   2 more examples

   Moreover, unto him, as firſt inventour, are attributed the Epodes, Tetrameter, Iambicks, Procritique and Proſodiacks; as alſo, the augmentation of the firſt, yea, and as ſome thinke, the Elegie it ſelfe: over and beſides, the intenſion of Iambus unto Pæan Epibatos, & of the Herous augmented both unto the Proſodiaque & alſo the Creticke.

   1603, Philemon Holland, Of Muſicke (chapter 68, pages 1,248–1,263), in The Philoſophie, commonlie called, The Morals, London: Arnold Hatfield, translation of Περὶ μουσικῆς [Perì mousikês] by pseudo-Plutarch (in Koine Greek), page 1,257, lines 7–14

   Ohio! the editor crowed […]. — A perfect cretic! the professor said. Long, short and long.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 7: Aeolus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 122

   Synonyms: amphimacer