dactyl

noun

Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin dactylus, from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”), three bones of the finger corresponding to three syllables. Doublet of dactylus and date.

1. A metrical foot of three syllables (— ⏑ ⏑), one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented.

   “Now the Bard, glad to get an audience, […] / stuck fast with his first hexameter, / Not one of all whose gouty feet would stir. // But ere the spavin'd dactyls could be spurr'd / Into recitative, in great dismay / Both cherubim and seraphim were heard / To murmur loudly through their long array; […]”

   “—My name is absurd too: Malachi Mulligan, two dactyls. But it has a Hellenic ring, hasn't it?”