Fitts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a section or canto of a long poem or ballad, especially one of the numbered parts of an old narrative verse
2. A dated word for a division of a poem, the kind of stanza group or canto found in medieval and early modern ballads
3. An old-fashioned name for one of the sections into which a lengthy narrative poem or song was traditionally divided

Etymology: "Fitts" is the plural of "fitt", and the form most readers will know from "Fitts" as a Middle English and early modern spelling of a word meaning a division or section of a poem or song. In that sense a "fitt" was one of the numbered parts into which a long ballad or narrative verse was divided, much as a canto divides an epic. The plural "fitts" therefore refers to several such sections taken together.