- meter
- {{11}}meter (n.1) also metre, "poetic measure," O.E. meter "meter, versification," from L. metrum, from Gk. metron "meter, a verse; that by which anything is measured; measure, length, size, limit, proportion," from PIE root *me- "measure" (see METER (Cf. meter) (n.2)). Possibly reborrowed early 14c. (after a 300-year gap in recorded use) from O.Fr. metre, with specific sense of "metrical scheme in verse," from L. metrum.{{12}}meter (n.2) also metre, unit of length, 1797, from Fr. mètre (18c.), from Gk. metron "measure," from PIE root *me- "to measure" (Cf. Gk. metra "lot, portion," Skt. mati "measures," matra "measure," Avestan, O.Pers. ma-, L. metri "to measure"). Developed by French Academy of Sciences for system of weights and measures based on a decimal system originated 1670 by French clergyman Gabriel Mouton. Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the meridian.{{12}}meter (n.3) "device for measuring," abstracted 1832 from gas-meter, etc., from Fr. -mètre, used in combinations (in English from 1790), from L. metrum "measure" or cognate Gk. metron "measure" (see METER (Cf. meter) (n.2)). Influenced by English meter "person who measures" (late 14c., agent noun from METE (Cf. mete) (v.)). As short for parking meter from 1960. Meter maid first recorded 1957; meter reader 1963.{{13}}meter (v.) "to measure by means of a meter," 1884, from METER (Cf. meter) (n.3). Meaning "install parking meters" is from 1957.
Etymology dictionary. 2014.