hexameter

& a. [Lat. hexameter, hex am etrus, from Gr. hex a metros =(a) of six meters or feet, (s.) a hexameter, from hex =six, and metron = a meter or measure.] A. As subst .: The heroic verse of the Greeks and Romans. As its name implies, it consists of six feet, properly dactyls, the last of which is shortened by one syllable, and so becomes a trochee (-), or, as the final syllable is long by position, a spondee (--). B. As adj .: Having six metrical feet. "Songs or ditties to be sung unto stringed instruments were composed in old time of hexameter verses."- P . Hol land: Plutarch , p. 1,018.