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metronome (n.)
mechanical musical time-keeper, 1815, coined in English from Greek metron "measure" (from PIE root *me- (2) "to measure") + nomos "regulating," verbal adjective of nemein "to regulate" (from PIE root *nem- "assign, allot; take"). The device was patented in England in 1815 by Johann Maelzel (1772-1838), German-born civil engineer and showman, who gave it its modern name, but he incorporated the ideas of a device invented in Amsterdam in 1814 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel (1777-1826). Related: Metronomic.
updated on January 10, 2019
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Dictionary entries near metronome
metricize
metrics
Metro
Metroliner
metrology
metronome
metronymic
metropolis
metropolitan
metropolitanism
metrosexual