DORIC, in general, any thing belonging to the Dorians. DORIC, in Architecture, is the second of the five orders, being that between the Tuscan and Ionic. See ARCHITECTURE.
Doric Dialect, one of the five dialects, or forms of speech, which prevailed among the Greeks. It was first used by the Lacedæmonians, and particularly by those of Argos; and thence it passed into Epirus, Libya, Sicily, and the islands of Rhodes and Crete. In this dialect wrote Archimedes and Theocritus, who were both of Syracuse, as likewise Pindar.
In strictness, however, we should rather define Doric the manner of speaking peculiar to the Dorians, and which afterwards came to prevail among the Lacedæmonians and other states. Some even distinguish between the Lacedæmonian and Doric; but in reality, setting aside a few particularities in the language of the Lacedæmonians, these dialects were the same; as indeed is shown by Rulandus in his treatise De Lingua Græca usque Dialectis.
Besides the authors already mentioned as having written in the Doric dialect, we might add Archytas of Tarentum, Bion, Callinus, Simonides, Bacchylides, Cypselas, Alcmeon, and Sophron.
Most of the medals of the cities of Græcia Magna and Sicily savour of the Doric dialect in their inscription: thus, AMBPAKINTAN, AHOAAINIATAN, AXEOPONTAN, AXYPITAN, HPAXAERTAN, TPAXINION, OEPMITAN, KATAONIATAN, KOHIATAN, TATPOMENITAN. These names indicate the countries in which the Doric dialect was used.
The general rules of this dialect are laid down by the grammarians of the Port-Royal; but they are much better explained in the fourth book of Rulandus, where he even notes the minute differences of the dialects of Sicily, Crete, Tarentum, Rhodes, Lacedæmon, Laconia, Macedonia, and Thessaly. The omega abounds everywhere in the Doric; but this dialect bears so close a conformity to the Æolic, that many reckon them but one. (See Müller's History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, vol. ii. appendix.)
Doric Mode, in Music, the first of the authentic modes of the ancients. Its character is severity tempered with gravity and joy; and it was proper upon religious occasions, as also used in war. Plato admires the music of the Doric mode, and judges it proper for preserving good manners, from being masculine in its character; on which account he allows it in his commonwealth. The ancients had likewise their subdoric or hypodoric mode, which was one of the plagal modes. Its character was also very grave and solemn, and it begins a fourth lower than the Doric.