Tribrach (poetry)

Metrical feet and accents
Disyllables
◡ ◡pyrrhic, dibrach
◡ –iamb
– ◡trochee, choree
– –spondee
Trisyllables
◡ ◡ ◡tribrach
– ◡ ◡dactyl
◡ – ◡amphibrach
◡ ◡ –anapaest, antidactylus
◡ – –bacchius
– ◡ –cretic, amphimacer
– – ◡antibacchius
– – –molossus
See main article for tetrasyllables.

A tribrach is a metrical foot used in formal poetry and Greek and Latin verse. In quantitative meter (such as the meter of classical verse), it consists of three short syllables occupying a foot, replacing either an iamb (u –) or a trochee (– u).[1] In accentual-syllabic verse (such as formal English verse), the tribrach consists of a run of three short syllables substituted for a trochee.

A "tribrach word" is a word consisting of three short syllables, such as Latin nitida "shining" or Greek ἔχετε "you have".[2] An English equivalent would be a word with three short syllables such as Canada or passenger.

The origin of the word tribrach is the Greek τρίβραχυς, derived from the prefix τρι- "three" and the adjective βραχύς "short".

  1. ^ West, M. L. (1987). Introduction to Greek Metre, p. 90.
  2. ^ W. M. Lindsay (1919), Early Latin Verse, pp. 105–6.