Spondee, Spondaic
A kind of metrical foot. A spondee is a
duple foot with two stressed
syllables. Although it's rare for any two adjacent syllables to
receive exactly the same stress, in spondees there's no obvious
stress on one syllable rather than the other. Some examples:
"pen-knife," "ad hoc," "heartburn." Spondees are sometimes substituted for iambs and trochees to vary the rhythm.
From the Guide to Literary Terms by Jack Lynch.
Please send comments to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
Note: This guide is still in the early stages of development. Bear with me.