metronn.
/ˈmɛtrɒn/, U.S. /ˈmɛtrɑn/ Ancient Greek Prosody.
Each of a series of identical or equivalent units, defined according to the number and length of syllables, into which the rhythm of a line of a particular metre is divided. Cf. measure n. 16a.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > metre > [noun] > metrical group or period
measure1706
period1837
metre1838
metron1948
1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie ii. iii. 55 Meeter and measure is all one, for what the Greeks call μετρον, the Latines call Mensura, and is but the quantitie of a verse, either long or short.
1683 R. Dixon Canidia iii. vii. 41 Three hundred and eighty Words, says Petron, In form of a Triangular Μέτρον.]
1948 A. M. Dale Lyric Metres Greek Drama ii. 19 It would be better theory to say that in the final iambic metron the penultimate short is suppressed.
1976 Classical Q. New Ser. 26 18 The final short of the final metron was imagined as..amputated, leaving the penultimate short to become ‘final anceps’.
1986 Classical Rev. 36 10 Link syllables are available to the poet as optional extras rather than an integral part of the metron.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1948