2. (Arch.) Pertaining to the Ionic order of architecture, one
of the three orders invented by the Greeks, and one of the
five recognized by the Italian writers of the sixteenth
century. Its distinguishing feature is a capital with
spiral volutes. See Illust. of {Capital}.
{Ionic dialect} (Gr. Gram.), a dialect of the Greek language,
used in Ionia. The Homeric poems are written in what is
designated old Ionic, as distinguished from new Ionic, or
Attic, the dialect of all cultivated Greeks in the period
of Athenian prosperity and glory.
{Ionic foot}. (Pros.) See {Ionic}, n., 1.
{Ionic}, or {Ionian}, {mode} (Mus.), an ancient mode,
supposed to correspond with the modern major scale of C.
{Ionic sect}, a sect of philosophers founded by Thales of
Miletus, in Ionia. Their distinguishing tenet was, that
water is the original principle of all things.
{Ionic type}, a kind of heavy-faced type (as that of the
following line).
Note: This is Nonpareil Ionic.