meter, metrel (meter)

[Formerly also meeter; ter1.] 1. (a) Rhythm in language; rhythmic language as measurable by prosodic times or uttered syllables; more specifically, arrangement of language in a succe ion of rhythmic movements, readily appreciable as such by the ear; verse, as opposed to prose. Meter in this sense is the subject-matter of the science of metrics. (b) Measured verse or rhythmic language; rhythmic language as determined by or divided into fixed measures. (1) A measure, foot, or dipodien (2) A line, verse, or period in ancient metrics; specifically, a mono colic verse or a di colic (or tricolic) period, as opposed to a hyper me tron. Me ters are called monometers, dimeters, trimeters, etc., accord ing to the number of measures in a verse, also acatalectic, catalectic, brachycatalectic, etc., meters, according to the completene or incompletene of the feet or measures. (3) A kind of verse; a particular variety of poetic rhythm, as expre ed by the kind of feet of which the verse consists: as, iambic, dactylic, Ionic meter; a particular form of metrical composition: as, Alcaic meter, elegiac meter. In ancient metrics meters were called monoid, pure, or sim ple meters when they consisted of one kind of foot throughout, compound or episynthetic meters when composed of cola of different kinds of feet, mixed meters when uniting different kinds of feet within the same colon. Lasciuious Meeters , to whose venom sound The open eare of youth doth always listen. Shak ., Rich. II. (folio 1623), ii. 1. 19. According to the number of the sillables contained in euery verse, the same is sayd a long or short meeter , and his shortest proportion is of foure sillables, and his longest of twelue. Putten ham , Arte of Eng. Poesie, p. 58. Rhime being no nece ary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame meeter. Milton , P. L., Pref. Metre may be defined to be a succe ion of poetical feet arranged in regular order, according to certain types recognized as standards, in verses of a determinate length. G. P. Marsh , Lects. on Eng. Lang., xxv. into parts of equal time-value and of similar 2. In music, the division of a composition e ential rhythmic structure. The smallest part thus indicated is that between succe ive primary accents, and is called a measure; in printed music this is marked by a bar before each primary accent. But meter includes also, in a general way, the division of a piece into equal and similar parts of more than one measure, such parts being called phrases or strophes. In this sense musical meter has obvious analogies with meter in verse, though the analogies cannot always be pre ed with safety, especially as the nomenclature is not strictly parallel. (See metrics2, 2.) Rhythm may be distinguished from meter in that it deals primarily with the accents and the typical and actual accentual patterns, which meter gathers into groups and sections in accordance with their time value. This distinction, however, is not always observed or even acknowledged. Sometimes the meaning of the term is reversed, rhythm being made a matter of time, and meter one of accent. Sometimes, too, the two terms are made entirely interchangeable. 3. In Eng. hymnology, a pattern of versification, including the structure of the prosodical feet used, the grouping of those feet into lines, and the grouping of lines into stanzas or strophes, popularly called verses. See foot and ver sif i cation. According to the kind of feet used, meters are usually either iambic, trochaic, or dactylic. The principal iambic meters are: Common Meter (C. M.), having alternately eight and six syllables to the line; Long Meter (L. M.), having eight syllables to the line; and Short Meter (S. M.), having two lines of six syllables, followed by one of eight, and then by another of six. Each of these meters has properly four lines to the stanza, so that their syllabic meth ter (H. M.), 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8 (or 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4); Sevens and Sixes, 7, 6, 7, 6; Tens, 10, 10, 10, 10; etc. The principal trochaic meters are Sevens, 7, 7, 7, 7; Eights and Sevens, 8, 7,8,7; Sixes, 6, 6, 6, 6; Sixes and Fives, 6, 5, 6,5; etc. The principal dactylic meters are Elevens, 11, 11, 11, 11; Elev ens and Tens, 11, 10, 11, 10; etc. Numerous modifications of these schemes occur, especially in recent hymns. - Accentual meters. See accentual. - Hipponactean meter, Hymenaic meter, Ionic meter. See the adjectives. In short meter, short meter, quickly; in short order. [U. S.] This go in' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur, An' if it worn't for wakin' snakes, I'd home again short Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2d ser., ii. meter. Laconic meter. See laconic , n . , 3.- Quantitative meters. See accentual meters , under accentual . meters, metre2 (mē'ter), n . [Also sometimes, as mere F., mètre ; = Sp. Pg. It. metro (after F.), mètre = D. G. Sw. Dan. meter , μέτρον , a measure: see meter2 .] The fundamental unit of length of the French metrical system. It is the distance, at the melting temperature of ice, between the ends of a certain platinum preserved in Paris, and called the mètre des It was intended to be one ten-milliouth part of the earth's meridian quadrant, and to be 443,296 lines of the toise of Peru, from which it really differs by a very small amount. The meter is equal to 39.37027 inches according to Profe or Rogers, and to 39.36985 inches according to General Com stock. A new meter has been established by the princi pal nations, which is defined by the length at the melting-point of ice between two lines drawn on a bar of pla tin iridium, ghicitatio and Measures pavillon de Breteuil near Sèvres, France. This new meter is to be as nearly as po ible of the same length as the old one. Abbrevi ated m.