Etymology of Literature, Poetry, and Drama Terms

The Etymology of Literary Vocabulary

Literature

The etymology of this word comes from Latin: Littera (letter of the alphabet) and the suffix -ure (the process of letters). However, neither the Greeks nor the Romans had a word for what we nowadays understand as literature.

Poetic and Metric Terminology

Poetry

Poetry is defined as: “a poem, ancient literature, poetical works, fables, or tales.” The etymology of this word has several origins:

• From Greek: Poieo, which means ‘to create’.
• From Old French: poetrie.
• Perhaps directly from Medieval Latin: poetria.
• Also from Latin: poeta.

Verse

The term Verse comes from Late Old English (replacing Old English fers, an early West Germanic borrowing directly from Latin), meaning “line or section of a psalm or canticle,” and later, “line of poetry.” Its origins include:

• Anglo-French and Old French: vers (“line of verse; rhyme, song”).
• Latin: versus (“a line, row, line of verse, line of writing”).

Stanza

Stanza means “group of rhymed verse lines.” It comes from:

• Italian: stanza (“verse of a poem”).
• Vulgar Latin: *stantia (“a stanza of verse”).
• Latin: stantem.

Scan / Scansion

This term means “to mark off verse in metric feet.” It comes from:

• Late Latin: scandere (“to scan verse”), which originally, in Classical Latin, meant “to climb, rise.”
• Sanskrit: skandati.
• Greek: skandalon.
• Middle Irish: sescaind.

Rhythm

Rhythm means “rhymed verse, metrical movement.” It derives from:

• Latin: rhythmus (“movement in time”).
• Greek: rhythmos (“measured flow or movement, rhythm”).

Rhyme

Rhyme refers to the “agreement in terminal sounds.” Its etymological path includes:

• Middle English: ryme, rime.
• Old French: rime.
• Latin: rithmus.
• Greek: rhythmos.

Dramatic and Theatrical Terminology

Theatre

Theatre originally referred to an “open-air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles and plays.” It comes from:

• Old French: theatre.
• Directly from Latin: theatrum (“play-house, theater; stage; spectators in a theater”).
• Greek: theatron (“theater; the people in the theater; a show, a spectacle”).

Drama

The word Drama, meaning “to do, act, perform,” originates from:

• Late Latin: drama (“play, drama”).
• Greek: drama (“play, action”).

Play

The term Play comes from Old English plega or plegan, meaning “dramatic performance.” By early Middle English, it had broadened to mean variously: “a game, a martial sport, activity of children, joke or jesting, revelry, or sexual indulgence.”

Character

Character originally meant “symbol marked or branded on the body.” It derives from:

• Old French: caratere (“feature, character”).
• Latin: character.
• Greek: kharakter (“engraved mark,” also “symbol or imprint on the soul”).

Person

The word Person comes from:

• Old French: persone (“human being, anyone, person”).
• Directly from Latin: persona (“human being, person, personage; a part in a drama, assumed character”), which originally meant “mask, false face.”

Tragedy

Tragedy is defined as a “play or other serious literary work with an unhappy ending.” Its origins are:

• Old French: tragedie.
• Latin: tragedia (“a tragedy”).
• Greek: tragodia (“a dramatic poem or play in formal language and having an unhappy resolution”).

Comedy

The term Comedy comes from:

• Old French: comedie.
• Latin: comoedia.
• Greek: komoidia (“a comedy, amusing spectacle”).