- meter (1)
- "poetic measure," O.E. meter, from L. metrum, from Gk. metron "meter, measure," from PIE base *me- "measure" (see meter (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.
- meter (2)
- "unit of length," 1797, from Fr. mètre, from Gk. metron "measure," from PIE base *me- "measure" (cf. Gk. metra "lot, portion," Skt. mati "measures," matra "measure," Avestan, O.Pers. ma-, L. metri "to measure"). Developed by Fr. Academy of Sciences for system of weights and measures based on a decimal system originated 1670 by Fr. clergyman Gabriel Mouton. Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the length of a quadrant of the meridian.
- meter (3)
- "device for measuring," abstracted 1832 from gas-meter, etc., from Fr. -mètre, used in combinations, from L. metrum "measure" or cognate Gk. metron "measure" (see meter (2)). Meter maid first recorded 1957.