sonnet

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɒnɪt/, /ˈsʌnɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French sonnet or directly borrowed from Italian sonetto (“little song”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Occitan sonet (“song”), a diminutive of son “sound, song”,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin sonus (“sound”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A poem of fourteen lines with a fixed rhyme scheme, first used in the title of the Earl of Surrey's poems (1557).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Into Elizabethan times the word was also used of any short lyric poem, especially a love poem (1563), a sense now obsolete.^[7][4] The strict form came from Italy, where Petrarch established an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet.^[4][6] Wyatt and Surrey introduced it into English, and Shakespeare developed the English sonnet of three quatrains and a closing couplet.^[4][6] The verb, “to write sonnets”, dates from 1589.^[7]

Timeline

• 1557 – a fourteen-line poem.^[7][3][4][5]
• 1563 – any short lyric poem (obsolete).^[7]
• 1589 – verb, to compose sonnets.^[7]
• 1598 – verb, to celebrate in a sonnet.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A fixed verse form of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with one of several set rhyme schemes, such as the Italian octave and sestet or the English three quatrains and a couplet.
2. A poem in this form.

Verb

1. (archaic) To compose sonnets, or to celebrate in a sonnet.

Word family

• sonneteer
• Petrarchan sonnet
• Shakespearean sonnet
• Spenserian sonnet

Related words

• sound
• sonata
• sonorous

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ 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