meter

History and Etymology for meter

Noun (1)

Middle English metre, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin metrum, borrowed from Greek métron "measure, space measured, (in plural) proportions, poetic meter," perhaps going back to Indo-European *mh_1-tro-, zero-grade derivative of a verbal base *meh₁- "measure" measure entry 1

Note: The word meter in the sense "poetic meter" is attested twice in Old English as a borrowing from Latin, but there is no continuity between this use and occurrence in later Middle English.

Noun (2)

Middle English, from meten "to mete entry 1" + -er -er entry 2

Noun (3)

borrowed from French mètre, borrowed from Greek métron "measure" — more at meter entry 1

Noun (4)

probably originally, as short for gas-meter "instrument for measuring the quantity of gas passing through an outlet," to be identified with meter entry 2; later uses appear to be extracted from compounds with -meter, generalized to refer to any measuring device

Verb

derivative of meter entry 4

Noun combining form

borrowed from French & New Latin; French -mètre, borrowed from New Latin -meter, borrowed from Greek -metron (as in hodómetron "instrument for measuring distance, odometer"), from métron "measure, instrument for measuring" — more at meter entry 1

Note: The earliest of such New Latin compounds is perhaps altimeter altimeter.