paeon

n.
In quantitative verse, a foot of one long syllable and three short syllables occurring in any order.

[Latin paeōn, from Greek paiōn, from paiān, paiōn, paean. See paean.]

paeon [pee‐on], a Greek metrical unit ( foot) consisting of one long syllable and three short syllables, usually in that order (– ∪ ∪ ∪, known as the ‘first paeon’ from the position of the long syllable). Named after its use in paeans, it occurs in some classical Greek comedy. In English, the paeon combines one stressed syllable with three unstressed syllables; but the foot is rarely found outside the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, who used the second (∘•∘∘) and third (∘∘•∘) paeons in combination withother feet in his ‘The Windhover’ and other poems.

Adjective: paeonic.

In ancient poetry, a metrical foot consisting of four syllables, one long and three short. The position of the long syllable can be varied in four ways, thus the foot can be called a primus, secundus, tertius or quartus pæon.