rhythm English · revision 10294

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1557|origins=la rhythmus|origins=grc ῥυθμός}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈɹɪð.əm/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a 16th-century spelling, an attempted classical correction, of Middle English rime, measure, metre (see [[rhyme]]),^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002) reshaped after Latin rhythmus, movement in time, or French rhythme,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(NODE 1998) from Greek [[m|grc|ῥυθμός|tr=rhythmós|t=measured flow or movement, proportion]], related to [[m|grc|ῥεῖν|tr=rheîn|t=to flow]] (see [[stream]]).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Rhyming or rhymed verse: about 1557;^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) metrical movement with alternating long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables, 1560.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The spelling fluctuated in the 16th and 17th centuries, with rithme and rime also used.^(Etymonline) The rhyme senses, a piece of rhyming verse and lines ending alike, are obsolete.^(OED 1989) The musical sense, a regular succession of beats or accents, is from 1776,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) and the general sense, any movement with a regular succession of strong and weak elements, as of the tides, from 1855.^(Barnhart 1988) The ''rhythm method'' of birth control is from 1936,^(Etymonline) and ''rhythm and blues'' from 1949, first in ''Billboard''.^(Etymonline) ''Rhythmic'' is from before 1631, in Donne.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1557 – rhymed verse.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1560 – metrical movement.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * before 1631 – rhythmic.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1776 – musical rhythm.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1855 – any regular movement.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1936 – rhythm method.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1949 – rhythm and blues.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A regular, repeated pattern of movement, sound or change: ''the rhythm of the seasons''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(music)'' A pattern of notes of different length and stress, or the arrangement of beats in a bar.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(prosody)'' The pattern of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables in verse; [[metre]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A regular pattern of elements in painting, sculpture or architecture.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[rhythmless]]

+ * [[rhythmic]]

+ * [[biorhythm]]

+ * [[dysrhythmia]]

+ * [[isorhythm]]

+ * [[polyrhythm]]

+ * [[rhythmical]]

+ * [[rhythm band]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[rhythmicity]]

+ * [[rhythmics]]

+ * [[rhythmist]]

+ * [[rhythmize]]

+ * [[rhyme]]

+ * [[stream]]

+ * [[diarrhea]]

+ * [[rheum]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}