metrica

Forms

metrica f (genitive metricae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin metricus (“metrical”), its feminine used as a noun.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary takes it as a borrowing of Ancient Greek μετρική (metrikḗ).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the treatise on music by Remigius it is one of the parts of music, the one that sets the notes to fixed times and makes them mean something.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Medieval writers on music divided their subject into harmonica, rhythmica and metrica,^[4] and in the theory of poetry it was the art of metres, which recognises the kinds of verse, such as the heroic and the iambic.^[4] Niermeyer glosses it as the theory of verse composition,^[5] and Ælfric says that Æthelwold learned grammar, metrica and the sacred books.^[3] In New Latin it is metrics.^[1] English took the noun metric “science of versification” in 1760 from the Latinized Greek word.^[6]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 9th century – Remigius names it as a part of music.^[4][2]
• c. 1000 – Ælfric uses it of the art of metrical verse.^[3][2]
• 1760 – English borrows it as metric, “science of versification”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) The art of composing metrical verse, prosody.^[3][5][4][7]
2. (Medieval Latin, music) The part of music concerned with the metre of musical phrases.^[4]
3. (New Latin) metrics.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences