radif means the word which must end both lines of the first couplet and the second line of all the following couplets in a Persian, Turkic or Urdu ghazal. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
RADIF — [Noun] In the formal architecture of a Persian, Turkic, or Urdu ghazal, the fixed word or phrase repeated identically at the close of each couplet, following the rhyme. From Classical Persian رَدِیف (radīf), from Arabic رَدِيف (radīf, "one who follows, pursuer; that which is added or appended"). Unlike the *qafia* (which denotes the preceding, variable rhyme-sound) or the general poetic *refrain* (which can drift in placement and form), the radif is the poem's immutable spine, a strict positional vow. It is the ritual bell struck after each confession in a courtyard; the steady pulse of a riverbank against which the flotsam of imagery ceaselessly flows; the single, worn step in a spiraling staircase, touched upon each revolution upward—a testament to the profound freedom found only within absolute constraint.
noun
- The word which must end both lines of the first couplet and the second line of all the following couplets in a Persian, Turkic or Urdu ghazal.