rhyme

Definition

Rhyming verse (poetic form)

Etymology

From Middle English rim, rime, ryme (“identical letters or sounds in words from the vowel in their stressed syllables to their ends; measure, meter, rhythm; song, verse, etc., with rhyming lines”), from Anglo-Norman rime, ryme (“identical letters or sounds in words from the vowel in their stressed syllables to their ends; song, verse, etc., with rhyming lines”) (modern French rime); further etymology uncertain, possibly either: * from Latin rhythmus (“rhythm”), from Ancient Greek ῥῠθμός (rhŭthmós, “measured motion, rhythm; regular, repeating motion, vibration”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow; a stream”); or * borrowed from Frankish *rīm (“number, order, sequence, series, row of identical things”) (whence Old English rīm (“number, enumeration, series”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂rey- (“to arrange; to count”) and *h₂er- (“to fit, put together; to fix; to slot”). Cognates * Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós, “number”) * Dutch rijm (“rhyme”) * Middle Low German rīm (“rhyme”) * Old Frisian rīm (“number, amount, tale”) * Old High German rīm (“series, row, number”) (modern German Reim (“rhyme”)) * Old Irish rīm (“number”) * Old Norse rím (“calculation, calendar”) (Icelandic rím (“rhyme”), Norwegian rim (“rhyme”), Swedish rim (“rhyme”)) * Welsh rhif (“number”)

Example Sentences

• "Many editors say they don’t want stories written in rhyme these days."
• "Libels are caſt againſt thee in the ſtreete, / Ballads and rimes made of thy ouerthrovv."
• "Thou, thou, Lyſander, thou haſt giuen her rimes, / And interchang'd loue tokens vvith my childe: […]"