Fytte

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A division or section of a long poem, typically in archaic or poetic usage
2. An old-fashioned term referring to a specific canto or part of a verse narrative
3. A subdivision of a poem used historically to denote a distinct segment or chapter

Etymology: Fytte is simply an obsolete spelling of "fit," and the sense of a section of a poem is the older meaning that the word kept long after "fit" moved on to other uses. Writers in Middle English used the word for the parts into which a long narrative poem was divided, and it survived in that role in poetic and archaic writing. The noun "fit" itself has a tangled origin. One possibility is that it grew from an Old English-era sense of "to marshal or deploy troops," which shifted to "to suit" or "suitable," and some scholars have linked it to Icelandic "fitja," meaning "to web, knit, or cast on." Another possibility is that it comes from the idea of something "fitted to length," or from a single attested Old English-era word. A further, less certain connection is to Italian "fitta," meaning a sudden, stabbing pain, which may or may not share the same root. Because these origins are uncertain, the earliest sense of the word may never be settled. What is clear is that the division-of-a-poem meaning came from the same root that gave us "fit" in the sense of a sudden bout or outburst, which the Cornish "fit," meaning a game match or bout, also reflects.