DACTYL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dactyl

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/dˈæktɪl/ Listen

noun

dactyl n.

(Pros.) A poetical foot of three sylables, one long followed by two short, or one accented followed by two unaccented; as, E. merciful; so called from the similarity of its arrangement to that of the joints of a finger. (Written also dactyle)

(Zool.)

(a)

A finger or toe; a digit.

(b)

The claw or terminal joint of a leg of an insect or crustacean.

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Etymology of 'Dactyl'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dactyl" Quotes from Famous Books

... the difference of no less than seven syllables in a line betwixt the English and the Latin. Now the medium of these is about fourteen syllables, because the dactyl is a more frequent foot in hexameters than the spondee. But Holyday (without considering that he writ with the disadvantage of four syllables less in every verse) endeavours to make one of his lines to comprehend ...

— Discourses on Satire and Epic Poetry • John Dryden

... Dactyl (name of a metrical foot) and finger. Strepsiades presents his middle finger with the other fingers and thumb bent under in an indecent gesture meant to suggest the penis and testicles. It was for this reason that the Romans called this finger ...

— The Satyricon, Complete • Petronius Arbiter