Plural of dactyl; either fingers or toes in anatomy, or in poetry, metrical feet consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.
From Greek 'daktylos' (finger/toe) or later applied to poetic meter because a long syllable followed by two short syllables resembles a finger with its longer bone followed by two shorter bones.
Ancient Greek poets chose the name 'dactyl' for this meter because they literally saw the pattern as a finger—one long part and two short parts, like the bones in your finger, showing how observant they were about their own bodies and language.
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