Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A verse form composed of quatrains in which the second and fourth lines are repeated as the first and third lines of the following quatrain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See pantun.

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

  • noun A poem, similar to a villanelle, that comprises a series of quatrains, the second and fourth lines of each stanza repeated as the first and third lines of the next.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Malay pantun, quatrain with a deliberately indirect allusive connection between the first couplet and the last, pantoum, perhaps from Krama (ceremonial form of Javanese in which words are phonetically deformed by adding nasals to the end of syllables), from Javanese pari, phrase, comparison, perhaps ultimately short for Sanskrit paribhāṣya-, (thing) to be stated, defined, or taught, from paribhāṣate, to explain, define : pari-, around; see per in Indo-European roots + bhāṣate, to speak.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Malay pantun, via French.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Also spelled (from the original Malay, it seems), pantun. "A verse form adopted into English and French consisting of quotations with an abab rhyme scheme, linked by repeated lines." (From the OAD.) Baudelaire was one of its practitioners. Thanks, bilby!

    December 7, 2007

  • Are we a Rush fan by any chance???

    December 7, 2007

  • sorry, thtownse? why? which Rush? Limbaugh? God no. I don't even live in the States.

    December 7, 2007