Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A line of poetry of fourteen syllables.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US, climbing A mountain rising to more than 14,000 feet above mean sea level.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

fourteen +‎ -er

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word fourteener.

Examples

  • Beyond this, except by the rather violent hypothesis of copyist misdeeds above referred to, [196] nobody has been able to get further in a generalisation of the metre than that the normal form is an eight and six (better a seven and seven) "fourteener," trochaically cadenced, but admitting contraction and extension with a liberality elsewhere unparalleled.

    The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) George Saintsbury 1889

  • In the very curious tragi-comedy of _Cambyses_ this doggerel appears partly, but is alternated with the less lawless but scarcely more suitable "fourteener" (divided or not as usual, according to printer's exigencies) which, as was shown in the last chapter, for a time almost monopolised the attention of English poets.

    A History of Elizabethan Literature George Saintsbury 1889

  • Chapman's "fourteener" and reminding the reader frequently of Chapman's large, vigorous manner, his compound epithets and spacious Homeric similes.

    A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century 1886

  • The English and Scottish popular ballads are in various simple stanza forms, the commonest of all being the old _septenarius_ or "fourteener," arranged in a four-lined stanza of alternate eights and sixes, thus:

    A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century 1886

  • Thayer tells Casey’s story in rhyming couplets of iambic heptameter, a nearly obsolete verse form known as the fourteener because a line typically has 14 syllables or seven iambic feet.

    2007 October 13 « One-Minute Book Reviews 2007

  • The only "fourteener" in Rocky Mountain National Park, Longs Peak is an iconic mountain and considered to be the most difficult 3rd class fourteener in Colorado.

    Brave New Traveler 2009

  • My husband, who would have been a professional mountain climber had I not come along and spoiled his plans, decided to take a day hike up the famous "fourteener" while we lounged near the campfire.

    Home Sanctuary 2009

  • This ranch resides in a valley over thirteen thousand feet above sea level, in the shadow of one of the two fourteener peaks in the county.

    Kings of Colorado David E. Hilton 2011

  • I find that a fourteener in front of me helps with inspiration when the climb seems too tough. i am on the ground floor, and more than once I have looked up to find a deer or elk peering in at me.

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Office Overhaul for Mental Overhaul 2010

  • This ranch resides in a valley over thirteen thousand feet above sea level, in the shadow of one of the two fourteener peaks in the county.

    Kings of Colorado David E. Hilton 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The fact that mountains dominate poetry in the visuals makes one want to let loose a compound epithet or two. Bloody heck! Heavens to Murgatroyd! With a little Homeric infixing -- it's abso-bloomin-lutely shocking.

    October 26, 2011

  • The fact that mountains dominate o'er po'ul'try is sad

    and causes starving foxy minds to go a tad bit mad.

    Why should the visuals be strewn with rocks and lakes and sheep?*

    Why shouldn't epithets spew forth? Why shouldn't poets weep?

    Where is Arthur Golding's verse about the hens of Ovid?

    His poems guide us toward the mount where the Roman gods hid.

    "And at his pleasure make an end of mine uncertain time.

    Yet shall the better part of me assured be to climb

    Aloft above the starry sky."** Now brother, don't you see?

    His mountain's in his verse, and in these mountains? Poetry.

    Thus ends the lesson--now it's clear, you hungry little Fox.

    Both sheep and chickens congregate--just concentrate on "flocks."

    * I know they're goats. This is what we call poetic license.

    ** See more of Golding's translation of Ovid quoted here.

    October 26, 2011