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metre
metre. The sound patterns on whose recurrence rhythm depends were formed in antiquity by arrangements of long and short syllables. Lines of verse consisted of ‘feet’, the commonest being the iambus (∼—), trochee (—∼), anapaest (∼∼—), dactyl (—∼∼), spondee (——). The pyrrhic (∼∼), tribrach (∼∼∼), amphibrach (∼—∼), cretic (—∼—), paeon (—∼∼∼), bacchius (∼———), ionic a minore (∼∼——), and choriamb (—∼∼—) featured mainly in lyric poems. The most popular ancient measure was the hexameter; it was divided by a caesura usually in the third foot. Elegiac couplets linked the hexameter with a pentameter which consisted of two feet (dactyls or spondees) and a single long syllable before the caesura followed by two dactyls and a single syllable, always end-stopped. Dramatists used the iambic trimeter because of its closeness to common speech. This comprised six feet arranged in pairs (hence ‘trimeter’) where the iamb could be replaced by other feet according to strict rules. There were also numerous lyric metres. Alcaics, Sapphics, and Asclepiads organized trochees, dactyls, and spondees in various patterns, and trochaic hendecasyllabics flourished in satire.
The 5th cent. ad brought, however, the beginnings of a radical change. The shape of the classical feet was retained, but stress became their determining feature, so that a trochee was an accented followed by an unaccented syllable. The trochaic tetrameter catalectic, which was divided by a caesura after the fourth trochee, the second half consisting of three trochees and a single syllable, provided the basis for most medieval hymns. English prosody is similarly based on stress. The earliest measures to develop were trochaic, but soon iambic couplets of four or five feet linked by rhyme became more popular. In the four-foot couplet we find extensive modulation: often the first foot has only one syllable, and the final syllable in the fifth foot is dropped. The five-foot couplet had a strict form, end-stopped with a marked middle break, but also a form that allowed overflow from one line to the next and substitution of different two- or even three-syllable feet for the iamb. But it is not in the couplet that the five-foot iambic line (imabic pentameter) attained greatest importance. Introduced into poetic drama in 1562, it had a distinguished history as ‘blank verse’, with more modulations than in the couplet and the final foot often replaced by an amphibrach. When blank verse was used later in epic by Milton, the modulations, if more controlled, were also more frequent and the use of overflow developed into paragraph construction. Five-foot lines were also built into stanzas with a variety of rhyme schemes: rhyme-royal (or rime royal, seven lines rhymed ababbcc), used for narrative from Chaucer to W. Morris; the nine-line Spenserian stanza, ababbcbcc; and, principally, the sonnet introduced by Wyatt and used since by every major English poet. (Wyatt copied Petrarch, dividing the sonnet into an octave rhymed abba, abba, and a sestet ccd, ccd or cde, cde; but Shakespeare preferred three quatrains ending with a couplet.) Other popular iambic metres include in Tudor times the awkward poulter's measure, a rhymed couplet where the first line had twelve, the second fourteen syllables. Broken by pause and internal rhyme, this makes a stanza 3343 which has been widely used by hymn writers. Fourteeners appear unresolved in Chapman's Homer, but provide, when divided 4343 and rhymed, the buoyant and well-known ballad stanza. Trochaic, anapaestic, and dactylic metres, though they figure in many poems, have not been as popular as the iambic. |
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "metre." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "metre." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-metre.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "metre." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-metre.html |
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metre
metre Symbol m. The SI unit of length that is equal to 39.37 inches. It is formally defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second. This definition, adopted by the General Conference on Weights and Measures in October 1983, replaced the 1960 definition based on the krypton lamp, i.e. 1 650 763.73 wavelengths in a vacuum of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the levels 2p10 and 5d5 of the nuclide krypton-86. This definition replaced the older (1927) definition of a metre based on a platinum-iridium bar of standard length.
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"metre." A Dictionary of Biology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "metre." A Dictionary of Biology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O6-metre.html "metre." A Dictionary of Biology. 2004. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O6-metre.html |
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metre
metre. Term used of regular succession of rhythmical impulses, or beats, in poetry and mus., e.g. 3/4 and 6/8 being described as different kinds of metres. Rhythm is no longer accepted as a sufficiently precise definition, metre being considered as the basic pulse and rhythm as the actual time-patterns of the notes within a measure. E.g., in 3/4 the 3 beats—strong, weak, weak—are metrical, while the time-values of the notes actually heard are the rhythm.
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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-metre.html MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-metre.html |
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metre
metre In poetry, a regular rhythmic pattern. It imposes a regular recurrence of stresses, typically dividing a line into equal units called metrical feet. The most commonly used metrical feet are anapaest, dactyl, iamb, and trochee. The metre of a poem is described according to the kind and number of metrical feet per line: for example, iambic pentameters have five iambs per line.
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"metre." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "metre." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-metre.html "metre." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-metre.html |
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metre
metre1, U.S. meter form of poetic rhythm, metrical form, verse. XIV. — (O)F. mètre — L. metrum — Gr. métron, f. IE. *mḗ- MEASURE + instr. suffix. Also in comps. hexameter, pentameter, etc.
So metrical pert. to metre XV; relating to measurement XVII. — L. metricus — Gr. metrist XVI. — medL. metrista. |
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T. F. HOAD. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-metre.html T. F. HOAD. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-metre.html |
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metre
metre (symbol m) SI unit of distance. Conceived as being a ten-millionth of the surface distance between the North Pole and the Equator, it was formerly defined by two marks on a platinum bar kept in Paris. It is now defined as the length of the path travelled by light in a vacuum during 1/299,792,458 of a second. One metre equals 39.3701 inches.
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Cite this article
"metre." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "metre." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-metre1.html "metre." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-metre1.html |
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metre
metre2, U. S. meter unit of length of the metric system. XVIII. — F. mètre — Gr. métron (see prec.).
So metric XIX. |
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Cite this article
T. F. HOAD. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-metre1.html T. F. HOAD. "metre." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-metre1.html |
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metre
metre (mee-ter) n. the SI unit of length that is equal to 39.37 inches. Symbol: m.
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"metre." A Dictionary of Nursing. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "metre." A Dictionary of Nursing. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O62-metre.html "metre." A Dictionary of Nursing. 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O62-metre.html |
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metre
metre •cater, crater, creator, curator, data, debater, delator, dumbwaiter, equator, freighter, frustrater, gaiter, grater, gyrator, hater, later, legator, mater, negator, pater, peseta, plater, rotator, skater, slater, stater, tater, traitor, ultimata, understater, upstater, waiter
•painter
•taster, waster
•gamester • aviator • tailgater
•hesitater • shirtwaister
•Akita, Anita, arboreta, beater, beta, Bhagavadgita, cheater, cheetah, Demeter, Dieter, dolce vita, eater, eta, Evita, excreta, fetor, granita, greeter, heater, Juanita, litre (US liter), Lolita, maltreater, margarita, meter, metre, Peta, peter, praetor (US pretor), repeater, Rita, saltpetre (US saltpeter), secretor, Senhorita, señorita, Sita, skeeter, teeter, terra incognita, theta, treater, tweeter, ureter, veleta, zeta
•Batista, Dniester, Easter, feaster, keister, leister, quaestor
•speedster
•deemster, teamster
•scenester • browbeater • windcheater
•beefeater
•millilitre (US milliliter)
•decilitre (US deciliter)
•centilitre (US centiliter)
•kilolitre (US kiloliter)
•ammeter • Machmeter
•millimetre (US millimeter)
•decimetre (US decimeter)
•altimeter
•centimetre (US centimeter)
•nanometre (US nanometer)
•micrometer, micrometre
•decametre (US dekameter)
•kilometre (US kilometer) • autopista
•anteater
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"metre." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "metre." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-metre.html "metre." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-metre.html |
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