Catalectic
(of a line of verse) lacking part of the last foot; metrically incomplete, as the second line of One more unfortunate,/Weary of breath.
a catalectic line of verse.
Historical Examples
In like manner the catalectic iambic tetrameter is broken up by inserted rhyme into two short verses, viz.
A History of English Versification Jakob Schipper
Here the alternate lines are catalectic, both light syllables being wanting.
English Verse Raymond MacDonald Alden, Ph.D.
adjective
(prosody) (of a line of verse) having an incomplete final foot
adj.
1580s, “wanting a syllable in the last foot,” from Late Latin catalecticus, from Greek katalektikos “leaving off,” from kata- “down” (see cata-) + legein “to leave off, cease from,” from PIE *(s)leg- “to be slack, be languid” (see lax).
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the absence of a syllable at the beginning or end of a line of metrical verse resulting in an incomplete foot, most often occurring in the last foot at the end of a verse; a catalectic line.
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