Iambic

prefix. pl. nom. We (wē); poss. Our (our) or Ours (ourz); object. Us (ŭs).

1. I, the ninth letter of the English alphabet, takes its form from the Phœnician, through the Latin and the Greek. The Phœnician letter was probably of Egyptian origin. Its original value was nearly the same as that of the Italian I, or long e as in mete. Etymologically I is most closely related to e, y, j, g; as in dint, dent, beverage, L. bibere; E. kin, AS. cynn; E. thin, AS. þynne; E. dominion, donjon, dungeon.
2. In our old authors, I was often used for ay (or aye), yes, which is pronounced nearly like it.
3. As a numeral, I stands for 1, II for 2, etc.
4. (Pros.) Consisting of a short syllable followed by a long one, or of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented; as, an iambic foot.
5. Pertaining to, or composed of, iambics; as, an iambic verse; iambic meter. See Lambus.
6. (Pros.) A foot consisting of a short syllable followed by a long one, as in ămāns, or of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented one, as invent; an iambic. See the Couplet under Iambic, n.
1. An iambic foot; an iambus.
2. A verse composed of iambic feet.

The dot which we place over the small or lower case i dates only from the 14th century. The sounds of I and J were originally represented by the same character, and even after the introduction of the form J into English dictionaries, words containing these letters were, till a comparatively recent time, classed together.

The following couplet consists of iambic verses.

It floats at the surface by means of a raft, which it constructs by forming and uniting together air bubbles of hardened mucus. The Tyrian purple of the ancients was obtained in part from mollusks of this genus.