: the recurring stress or beat in a rhythmic or metrical series of sounds
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Latin, "stroke, blow, beat (in music or metrics)," from ic-, variant stem of īcere "to strike with a weapon, smite, affect strongly" (perhaps going back to Indo-European *h2i-h2iḱ-é-, reduplicated present stem from a verbal base *h2ei̯ḱ- "to run through (with something pointed), spear") + -tus, suffix of action nouns
Note: For nominal derivatives of *h2ei̯ḱ- see etymology at aichmophobia. If such a verbal base exists, the only evidence for its survival in a verb would be Latin īcere (assuming the correctness of the etymology).