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villanelle

(vil′ə nel′)

noun

a poem of fixed form, French in origin, consisting usually of five three-line stanzas and a final four-line stanza and having only two rhymes throughout

Origin: Fr < It villanella: see villanella

See villanelle in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A 19-line poem of fixed form consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain on two rhymes, with the first and third lines of the first tercet repeated alternately as a refrain closing the succeeding stanzas and joined as the final couplet of the quatrain.

Origin:

Origin: French

Origin: , from Italian villanella

Origin: , from feminine of villanello, rustic

Origin: , from villano, peasant

Origin: , from Vulgar Latin *vīllānus

Origin: , from Latin vīlla, country house; see weik-¹ in Indo-European roots

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