> 1. gen. The commencing of two or more words in close connexion, with the same letter, or rather the same sound.
2. The commencement of certain accented syllables in a verse with the same consonant or consonantal group, or with different vowel sounds, which constituted the structure of versification in OE. and the Teutonic languages generally. Thus from the beginning of Langland's Piers Ploughman, text C.:In a somere seyson · whan softe was þe sonne,Y shop me into shrobbis · as y a shepherde were;In abit as an ermite · vnholy of werkes,Ich wente forth in þe worlde · wonders to hure,And …