Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- (often lowercase) a verse or line of poetry of twelve syllables.
adjective
- (often lowercase) of or relating to such a verse or line.
adjective
- of or relating to Alexandria, Egypt.
noun
- a line of verse having six iambic feet, usually with a caesura after the third foot
adjective
- of, characterized by, or written in Alexandrines
in reference to a type of verse line, 1580s (adj.); 1660s (n.), said to be from Old French Roman d’Alexandre, name of a poem about Alexander the Great that was popular in the Middle Ages, which used a 12-syllable line of 6 feet (the French heroic verse); it was used in English to vary the heroic verse of 5 feet. The name also sometimes is said to be from Alexandre de Paris, 13c. French poet, who used such a line (and who also wrote one of the popular Alexander the Great poems).