sonnet English · revision 992
11 Oct 2026, 04:17 by bogdan “New entry from the dictionary sources (AHD, Barnhart, Etymonline, MW, OED, RHWU, Wiktionary)” current version
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+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA: /ˈsɒnɪt/, /ˈsʌnɪt/^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[bor|frm|sonnet]] or directly [[bor|it|sonetto|t=little song]],^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) from [[oc|sonet|t=song]], a diminutive of ''son'' “sound, song”,^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU) from [[la|sonus|t=sound]].^(AHD)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)
+
+ ==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).^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ Into Elizabethan times the word was also used of any short lyric poem, especially a love poem (1563), a sense now obsolete.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) The strict form came from Italy, where Petrarch established an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet.^(Etymonline)^(RHWU) Wyatt and Surrey introduced it into English, and Shakespeare developed the English sonnet of three quatrains and a closing couplet.^(Etymonline)^(RHWU) The verb, “to write sonnets”, dates from 1589.^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * 1557 – a fourteen-line poem.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1995)^(Etymonline)^(MW Collegiate)
+ * 1563 – any short lyric poem (obsolete).^(OED 1989)
+ * 1589 – verb, to compose sonnets.^(OED 1989)
+ * 1598 – verb, to celebrate in a sonnet.^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Modern meaning==
+ ===Noun===
+ # 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 [[quatrain|alt=quatrains]] and a [[couplet]].^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(RHWU)^(Wiktionary)
+ # A poem in this form.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ===Verb===
+ # ''(archaic)'' To compose sonnets, or to celebrate in a sonnet.^(RHWU)^(OED 1989)^(Wiktionary)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[sonneteer]]
+ * [[Petrarchan sonnet]]
+ * [[Shakespearean sonnet]]
+ * [[Spenserian sonnet]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[sound]]
+ * [[sonata]]
+ * [[sonorous]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}