iambe, French satiric verse form consisting of alternating lines of 8 and 12 syllables. The total number of lines is variable. Greek writers, especially Archilochus, used iambics as a vehicle for satire, but the name came into use as a French form in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when André Chénier’s Ïambes and Auguste Barbier’s Les Ïambes were published.