cretic

• cretick, creticke (obsolete)

From Latin creticus, "of Crete, Cretan", from Latin Creta, "Crete".

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹiː.tɪk/

cretic (not comparable)

1. Using or relating to a metrical pattern of poetry where each foot is composed of three syllables, the first and third of which are stressed and the second is unstressed. This pattern is very rare in English poetry.

cretic (plural cretics)

1. A verse of this kind.
   • [1586, VVilliam VVebbe, edited by Edward Arber, A Diſcourſe of Engliſh Poetrie (English Reprints), Westminster: A. Constable & Co., published 1895, page 69:

     The foote of a verſe, is a meaſure of two ſillables, or of three, diſtinguiſhed by time which is eyther long or ſhort. […] A ſoote^[sic] of 3. ſillables in like ſorte is either ſimple or myxt. […] The mixt is of 6. diuers ſortes, […] 5. Creticus of a long, a ſhort, and a long, ﹘⏑﹘ daungerous.]

   • 1603, Philemon Holland, Of Muſicke. A Dialogue. The perſons therein diſcourſing: Oneſicrates, Soterichus, Lyſias. (chapter 68, pages 1,248–1,263), in The Philoſophie, commonlie called, The Morals written by the learned Philoſopher Plutarch of Chæronea, London: Arnold Hatfield, translation of Περὶ μουσικῆς [Perì mousikês] by pseudo-Plutarch (in Koine Greek), page 1,257, lines 7–14:

     And if it be true as Pindarus ſaith, Terpander was the inventour of thoſe ſongs called Scolia, which were ſung at feaſts. Archilochus alſo adjoined thoſe rhymes or Iambicke meaſures called Trimetra: the tranſlation alſo and change into other number and meaſures of a different kinde, yea, and the maner how to touch and ſtrike them. Moreover, unto him, as firſt inventour, are attributed the Epodes, Tetrameter, Iambicks, Procritique and Proſodiacks; as alſo, the augmentation of the firſt, yea, and as ſome thinke, the Elegie it ſelfe: over and beſides, the intenſion of Iambus unto Pæan Epibatos, & of the Herous augmented both unto the Proſodiaque & alſo the Creticke.

• amphimacer

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Cretic, a.¹ and sb.”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II (C), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 1168, column 1.

• ticcer