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ottava rima

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ot⋅ta⋅va ri⋅ma

  [oh-tah-vuh ree-muh]
–noun, plural ot⋅ta⋅va ri⋅mas.
an Italian stanza of eight lines, each of eleven syllables (or, in the English adaptation, of ten or eleven syllables), the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet with a different rhyme: used in Keats' Isabella and Byron's Don Juan.
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Origin:
1810–20; < It: octave rhyme
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.
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ottava ri·ma   (rē'mə)   
n.  A stanza of verse consisting of eight lines in iambic pentameter rhyming abababcc.

[Italian : ottava, feminine of ottavo, eighth + rima, rhyme.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

ottava rima 
1820, from It., "eight-lined stanza," lit. "eighth rhyme," from ottava "eighth" (see octave). A stanza of eight 11-syllable lines, rhymed a b a b a b c c, but in the Byronic variety, they are English heroic lines of 10 syllables.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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