poetry

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈpəʊ.ə.tri/, /ˈpəʊ.ɪ.tri/, US /ˈpoʊ.ə.tri/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English poetrie, borrowed from Old French poetrie and directly from Medieval Latin poetria,^[2][3][4] from poēta (“poet”),^[2][3] probably after Latin geometria.^[5] In classical Latin poētria meant “poetess”, from Ancient Greek ποιήτρια (poiḗtria), the feminine of ποιητής (poiētḗs, “maker, poet”);^[3][4] the classical word for poetry was poetica or poetice.^[2] See poet.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Poetry or creative literature: about 1380, in Chaucer's House of Fame, in Barnhart, about 1384 in the OED.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In early use it often meant imaginative literature in general, fable or fiction, a sense obsolete by the early 17th century.^[5][7] Composition in verse is from 1386,^[6] the writings of a poet as a form of literature from 1586,^[6] and the expression of beauty or feeling from 1581.^[6] The figurative sense, poetic quality in anything, is from the 1660s.^[2] In 1815 it was extended, with reference to the Greek sense “making”, to creative art in general.^[6] Old English had metergeweorc “verse” and scopcræft “the poet's art”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – poetry, creative literature.^[3]
• 1386 – composition in verse.^[6]
• 1586 – poetry as a body of writing.^[6]
• 1660s – figurative use.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Poems in general, as a form of literature; verse.
2. The art or craft of writing poems.
3. The poems of a particular writer, nation or period.
4. A beautiful or moving quality in something: poetry in motion.

Word family

• poetryless
• concrete poetry

Related words

• poesy
• poet
• poetess
• poeticize
• poetize
• poetic
• poetics
• poem

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press