poet
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈpəʊ.ɪt/, /ˈpəʊ.ət/ (UK); /ˈpoʊ.ət/, /ˈpoʊ.ɪt/ (US)[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Old French poete and directly borrowed from Latin poēta (“poet, author”),[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek ποητής (poētḗs, “maker, author, poet”), a variant of poiētḗs, from ποιέω (poiéō, “to make, create, compose”),[2][3][5] which Watkins traces to PIE Proto-Indo-European *kʷey- (“to pile up, build”).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
A writer of poems: before 1300 in the OED, before 1325, in Cursor Mundi, in Barnhart;[6][2] Poet is a surname from about 1200.[2]
Semantic evolution
In the 14th century, as in classical languages, poet was used of any writer or author (1362).[6][3] Word Origins notes that a poet is literally a maker, and Puttenham (1589) called the poet a maker.[5][3] It replaced Old English scop.[3] A writer of great imaginative power, in an emphatic sense, is from 1530.[6] Poetic justice comes from Pope's Dunciad (1742).[5]
Timeline
- c. 1200 – Poet, as a surname.[2]
- before 1300 – a writer of poems.[6]
- 1362 – any author.[6]
- 1530 – a highly imaginative writer.[6]
Modern meaning
Noun
- A person who writes poems.
- A person with great imagination or creative sensitivity.
Word family
- poetless
- poetlike
- nonpoet
- poetaster
- poetess
- poetical
- poetize
- concrete poet
Related words
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press