ÆOLIC, or ÆOLIAN, in Grammar, denotes one of the five dialects of the Greek tongue. It was first used in Buotia; whence it passed into Æolia, and was that which Sappho and Alcæus wrote in. The Æolic dialect generally throws out the aspirate or sharp spirit, and agrees in so many things with the Doric dialect, that the two are usually confounded together.
The Æolic digamma is a name given to the letter F, which the Æolians used to prefix to words beginning with vowels, as Æones, for ones; also to insert between vowels, as Æis, for us.
Æolic Verse, in Prosody, a verse consisting of an iambus, or spondee; then of two anapests, separated by a long syllable; and, lastly, of another syllable. Such as, O stelliferi conditor orbis. This is otherwise called eulogic verse; and, from the chief poets who used it, Archilochian and Pindaric.