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Origin and history of rhythm

rhythm(n.)

16c. spelling variant or attempted classical correction of Middle English rime "measure, meter, rhythm," also "agreement in end-sounds of words or metrical lines, rhyme; a rhyming poem" (12c.), from Old French rime "verse," from Latin rhythmus "movement in time," from Greek rhythmos "measured flow or movement, rhythm; proportion, symmetry; arrangement, order; form, shape, wise, manner; soul, disposition," related to rhein "to flow" (from PIE root *sreu- "to flow"). Compare rhyme.

The word rhyme has no connection with the word rhythm, nor is rhyme necessary to accentual verse. Nevertheless, rhyme was usually present. On the other hand, in classical Greek metrical poetry, rhymes, if not accidental, were never an essential element of metrical verse structure. [Henry Osborn Taylor, "The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages," 1911]

The spelling fluctuated 16c.-17c., rithme and ri'me also being used. From 1550s as "metrical movement, movement in time characterized by equality of measures and alteration of stress and relaxation." By 1776 as "regular succession of beats or accents in music."

The rhythm method in reference to birth control is attested from 1936. Rhythm and blues, U.S. music style, is from 1949 (first in Billboard magazine).

also from 16c.

Entries linking to rhythm

rhyme(n.)

"agreement in terminal sounds of words or metrical lines," a 16c. attempt to restore a classical spelling to Middle English ryme, rime (c. 1200) "measure, meter, rhythm," later "rhymed verse" (mid-13c.), from Old French rime (fem.), which is related to Old Provençal rim (masc.), earlier *ritme, from Latin rithmus, from Greek rhythmos "measured flow or movement, rhythm; proportion, symmetry; arrangement, order; form, shape, wise, manner; soul, disposition." This is related to rhein "to flow" (which is reconstructed in Watkins to be from PIE root *sreu- "to flow").

Compare rhythm, also see rhyme (v.). The intermediate form rhime was frequent until late 18c.

In Medieval Latin, rithmus was used for accentual, as opposed to quantitative, verse, and accentual verse usually was rhymed, hence the sense shift. In precise prosody it means the quality of agreement in end-sounds such that the last stressed vowel, and any sounds after it, are the same, and preceding sounds differ.

Verse was invented as an aid to memory. Later it was preserved to increase pleasure by the spectacle of difficulty overcome. That it should still survive in dramatic art is a vestige of barbarism. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822]

The sense of "a piece of poetry in which consonance of end-sounds is observed" is from 1610s. It is attested from 1650s as "word that rhymes with another."

The phrase rhyme or reason "good sense" (chiefly used in the negative) is from late 15c. (see reason (n.)). Rhyme scheme "ordered pattern of end-rhymes in metrical composition" is attested from 1931.

arrhythmia(n.)

in medicine, "irregularity of pulse" (arrhythmia cordis), 1888, from Greek noun of action from arrhythmos "irregular, unrhythmical," from a- "not" (see a- (3)) + rhythmos "measured flow or movement, rhythm; proportion, symmetry" (see rhythm). A nativized form arrhythmy, in reference to metrics, is attested from 1844.