poetry English · revision 5498

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1380|origins=grc ποιητής}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈpəʊ.ə.tri/, /ˈpəʊ.ɪ.tri/, US /ˈpoʊ.ə.tri/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|poetrie]], [[bor|fro|poetrie]] and directly from [[la-med|poetria]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) from [[m|la|poēta|t=poet]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) probably after Latin geometria.^(SOED 2002) In classical Latin poētria meant “poetess”, from [[grc|ποιήτρια|tr=poiḗtria]], the feminine of [[m|grc|ποιητής|tr=poiētḗs|t=maker, poet]];^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) the classical word for poetry was poetica or poetice.^(Etymonline) See [[poet]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Poetry or creative literature: about 1380, in Chaucer's House of Fame, in Barnhart, about 1384 in the OED.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In early use it often meant imaginative literature in general, fable or fiction, a sense obsolete by the early 17th century.^(SOED 2002)^(NODE 1998) Composition in verse is from 1386,^(OED 1989) the writings of a poet as a form of literature from 1586,^(OED 1989) and the expression of beauty or feeling from 1581.^(OED 1989) The figurative sense, poetic quality in anything, is from the 1660s.^(Etymonline) In 1815 it was extended, with reference to the Greek sense “making”, to creative art in general.^(OED 1989) Old English had metergeweorc “verse” and scopcræft “the poet's art”.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1380 – poetry, creative literature.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1386 – composition in verse.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1586 – poetry as a body of writing.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1660s – figurative use.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[Poem|alt=Poems]] in general, as a form of [[literature]]; verse.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # The art or craft of writing poems.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # The poems of a particular writer, nation or period.^(AHD)

+ # A beautiful or moving quality in something: ''poetry in motion''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[poetryless]]

+ * [[concrete poetry]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[poesy]]

+ * [[poet]]

+ * [[poetess]]

+ * [[poeticize]]

+ * [[poetize]]

+ * [[poetic]]

+ * [[poetics]]

+ * [[poem]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}