Metrify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To arrange words into a regular rhythmic pattern of verse ; to convert a measurement or quantity into metric units
2. To set something into metrical form or poetic meter ; to express a quantity or system using metric standards
3. To compose or cast language into fixed meter ; to adapt measurements so they follow the metric system

Etymology: "Metrify" is a plain formation: the Latin "metrum" (meaning "meter," in the sense of measured verse or rhythm) combined with the English suffix "-fy," which turns a noun into a verb meaning "to make or convert into." To metrify is therefore to put something into metric form or to convert it to the metric system. The same construction appears in French as "métrifier," so the coinage is one that the two languages arrived at along parallel lines. The word's sense has a clear double track. In its older, literary sense it concerns poetry, where "metrum" denotes the measured pattern of syllables that gives verse its rhythm. The newer sense, tied to the metric system of weights and measures, depends on the French-derived unit "mètre," which itself comes from the Greek "metron," meaning "measure." So the two meanings share a root that means measure, though they reached English through different channels.

Synonyms: metricate, convert, decimalize