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rhythm

Etymology and origin of the English word rhythm

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1557
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (ῥυθμός)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɹɪð.əm/[1]

Etymology

It is a 16th-century spelling, an attempted classical correction, of Middle English rime, measure, metre (see rhyme),[2][3][4] reshaped after Latin rhythmus, movement in time, or French rhythme,[5][3][6] from Greek ῥυθμός (rhythmós, “measured flow or movement, proportion”), related to ῥεῖν (rheîn, “to flow”) (see stream).[5][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rhyming or rhymed verse: about 1557;[5][8] metrical movement with alternating long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables, 1560.[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The spelling fluctuated in the 16th and 17th centuries, with rithme and rime also used.[2] The rhyme senses, a piece of rhyming verse and lines ending alike, are obsolete.[8] The musical sense, a regular succession of beats or accents, is from 1776,[5][2] and the general sense, any movement with a regular succession of strong and weak elements, as of the tides, from 1855.[5] The rhythm method of birth control is from 1936,[2] and rhythm and blues from 1949, first in Billboard.[2] Rhythmic is from before 1631, in Donne.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1557 – rhymed verse.[5]
  • 1560 – metrical movement.[5]
  • before 1631 – rhythmic.[5]
  • 1776 – musical rhythm.[5]
  • 1855 – any regular movement.[5]
  • 1936 – rhythm method.[2]
  • 1949 – rhythm and blues.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A regular, repeated pattern of movement, sound or change: the rhythm of the seasons.
  2. (music) A pattern of notes of different length and stress, or the arrangement of beats in a bar.
  3. (prosody) The pattern of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables in verse; metre.
  4. A regular pattern of elements in painting, sculpture or architecture.

Word family

  • rhythmless
  • rhythmic
  • biorhythm
  • dysrhythmia
  • isorhythm
  • polyrhythm
  • rhythmical
  • rhythm band
  • rhythmicity
  • rhythmics
  • rhythmist
  • rhythmize
  • rhyme
  • stream
  • diarrhea
  • rheum

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Rhythm.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/rhythm. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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