It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent.
While commonly used in couplets, typical stanzas using octosyllables are: décima, some quatrains, redondilla.
In Spanish verse, an octosyllable is a line that has its seventh syllable stressed, on the principle that this would normally be the penultimate syllable of a word (Lengua Castellana y Literatura, ed.
If the final word of a line does not fit this pattern, the line could have eight or seven or nine syllables (as normally counted), thus – In Medieval French literature, the octosyllable rhymed couplet was the most common verse form used in verse chronicles, romances (the romans), lais and dits.
The meter reached Spain in the 14th century, although commonly with a more varied rhyme scheme than the couplet.