in antiquity, a discourse in verse sung, or rehearsed by a rhapsodist. Others will have rhapsody to signify a collection of verses, especially those of Homer, which having been a long time dispersed in pieces and fragments, were at length, by Pindar's order, digested into books called rhapso- dics, from παρά, παρά, and ὁμός, canticum. Hence, among moderns, rhapsody is also used for an assemblage of passages, thoughts, and authorities ranked together from divers authors, to compose some new piece.