\I*am"bus\, n.; pl. L. {Iambi}, E. {Iambuses}. [L.
iambus, Gr. ?; prob. akin to ? to throw, assail (the iambus
being first used in satiric poetry), and to L. jacere to
throw. Cf. {Jet} a shooting forth.] (Pros.)
A foot consisting of a short syllable followed by a long one,
as in [a^]m[=a]ns, or of an unaccented syllable followed by
an accented one, as invent; an iambic. See the Couplet under
{Iambic}, n.