metrumn.
/ˈmɛtrəm/, U.S. /ˈmɛtrəm/ Prosody.
Metrical arrangement; a metrical group or measure. Also: a passage or section of verse, spec. each of the verse sections of Boethius' De Consolatione Philosophiae.
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?c1425 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (heading) Incipit Liber Boecii de Consolacione Philosophie. ‘Carmina Qui Quondam Studio Florente Peregi.’—Metrum 1.]
1603 S. Daniel Def. Ryme in Panegyrike (new ed.) sig. F2 All verse is but a frame of wordes confinde within certaine measure... Which frame of words consisting of Rithmus or Metrum, Number or Measure, are disposed into diuers fashions.
1820 S. Turner Hist. Anglo-Saxons (ed. 3) II. v. ii. 155 A MS. of the Anglo-Saxon translation exists in the Bodleian library, with the metrums rendered in prose.
1838 E. Guest Hist. Eng. Rhythms II. 431 The metrum which may best dispute with the Asclepiad the honour of giving rise to the Alexandrine rhythmus, is the Trochaic Dimeter wanting half a metre.
1866 J. W. Howe Latin in Later Lyrics 110 Here..Read I in Horace; Lost in the figures, lawless in the metrum.
1940 ELH 7 282 The poem is in fornyrþislag (the Beowulf metrum).
1991 J. Caldwell Oxf. Hist. Eng. Music I. i. 5 It is quite possible that the neumes (and hence the actual tunes) for the Boethian metra at least were invented by the English scribe himself.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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