Metrician

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A specialist in meter and the measured patterning of verse, someone who analyzes or composes poetry according to its rhythmic rules
2. Someone who studies or practices the rules of poetic meter and rhythm, often in the analysis of verse structure
3. A person versed in the science of measurement in poetry, particularly the scansion and composition of metrical lines

Etymology: "Metrician" is a person who studies or practises metre, the rhythmic pattern of verse. It takes its form from French "métricien", which in turn belongs to the family of words built on the Greek "metron", meaning "measure". The English "meter" in the sense of verse rhythm comes from that same root, so a metrician is, quite literally, someone whose trade is measuring out lines of poetry. The word is a plain formation rather than a story with a named coiner: a stem meaning metre, combined with the suffix "-ian", which marks a person connected with a field. Because it follows a French model, it reads as a specialist term, and it has stayed largely within discussions of prosody and poetic theory.

Synonyms: prosodist, versifier