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Origin and history of stanza

stanza(n.)

"group of rhymed verse lines arranged in fixed sequence as to length and metrics," normally forming a division in a larger work, 1580s, from Italian stanza "verse of a poem," originally "standing, stopping place," from Vulgar Latin *stantia "a stanza of verse," so called from the stop at the end of it, from Latin stantem (nominative stans), present participle of stare "to stand" (from PIE root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm"). Related: Stanzaic; stanzaical.

also from 1580s

Entries linking to stanza

strophe(n.)

c. 1600, "metrical form repeated once or oftener in a poem," from Greek strophe "stanza," originally "a turning," in reference to the section of an ode sung by the chorus while turning in one direction, from strephein "to turn" (see strepto-). In modern use (by 1895) it can mean no more than stanza.

*sta-

*stā-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to stand, set down, make or be firm," with derivatives meaning "place or thing that is standing."

It might form all or part of: Afghanistan; Anastasia; apostasy; apostate; armistice; arrest; assist; astatic; astatine; Baluchistan; bedstead; circumstance; consist; constable; constant; constitute; contrast; cost; desist; destination; destine; destitute; diastase; distance; distant; ecstasy; epistasis; epistemology; establish; estaminet; estate; etagere; existence; extant; Hindustan; histidine; histo-; histogram; histology; histone; hypostasis; insist; instant; instauration; institute; interstice; isostasy; isostatic; Kazakhstan; metastasis; obstacle; obstetric; obstinate; oust; Pakistan; peristyle; persist; post (n.1) "timber set upright;" press (v.2) "force into service;" presto; prostate; prostitute; resist; rest (v.2) "to be left, remain;" restitution; restive; restore; shtetl; solstice; stable (adj.) "secure against falling;" stable (n.) "building for domestic animals;" stage; stalag; stalwart; stamen; -stan; stance; stanchion; stand; standard; stanza; stapes; starboard; stare decisis; stasis; -stat; stat; state (n.1) "circumstances, conditions;" stater; static; station; statistics; stator; statue; stature; status; statute; staunch; (adj.) "strong, substantial;" stay (v.1) "come to a halt, remain in place;" stay (n.2) "strong rope which supports a ship's mast;" stead; steed; steer (n.) "male beef cattle;" steer (v.) "guide the course of a vehicle;" stem (n.) "trunk of a plant;" stern (n.) "hind part of a ship;" stet; stoa; stoic; stool; store; stound; stow; stud (n.1) "nailhead, knob;" stud (n.2) "horse kept for breeding;" stylite; subsist; substance; substitute; substitution; superstition; system; Taurus; understand.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit tisthati "stands;" Avestan histaiti "to stand;" Persian -stan "country," literally "where one stands;" Greek histēmi "put, place, cause to stand; weigh," stasis "a standing still," statos "placed," stylos "pillar;" Latin sistere "stand still, stop, make stand, place, produce in court," status "manner, position, condition, attitude," stare "to stand," statio "station, post;" Lithuanian stojuos "I place myself," statau "I place;" Old Church Slavonic staja "place myself," stanu "position;" Gothic standan, Old English standan "to stand," stede "place;" Old Norse steði "anvil;" Old Irish sessam "the act of standing."

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    stance
    probably from French stance "resting place, harbor" (16c.), from Vulgar Latin *stantia "place, abode" (also source of Italian stanza..."stopping place, station, stanza," Spanish stancia "a dwelling"), from Latin stans (genitive stantis), present participle...The sense of the French word has since narrowed to "stanza."...
    sonnet
    short lyric poem;" the more precise meaning is from Italian, where Petrarch (14c.) developed a scheme of an eight-line stanza...(rhymed abba abba) followed by a six-line stanza (cdecde, the Italian sestet, or cdcdcd, the Sicilian sestet)....Done traditionally, the first stanza sets a situation or problem, and the second comments on it or resolves it....
    envoy
    The same French word was borrowed in Middle English as envoi in the sense "stanza of a poem 'sending it off' to find readers...
    curtail
     Compare curtal, which is the form retained in poetics to describe a "shortened" stanza or poem....
    octave
    Verse sense of "stanza of eight lines" is from 1580s; musical sense of "note eight diatonic degrees above (or below) a given...
    Spenserian
    Spenserian stanza, which he employed in the "Faerie Queen," consists of eight decasyllabic lines and a final Alexandrine,...
    Anacreontic
    Also in reference to his lyric form (1706) of a four-line stanza, rhymed alternately, each line with four beats (three trochees...
    text
    late 14c., "wording of anything written," from Old French texte, Old North French tixte "text, book; Gospels" (12c.), from Medieval Latin textus "the Scriptures, text, treatise," in Late Latin "written account, content, characters used in a document," from Latin textus "style or
    antistrophe
    part of an ancient Greek choral ode, 1610s, from Latin, from Greek antistrophē "the returning of the chorus," "answering to a previous [strophe], except that they now moved from left to right instead of from right to left" [Liddell & Scott], literally "a turning about, a turn
    line
    a Middle English merger of Old English line "cable, rope; series, row, row of letters; rule, direction," and Old French ligne "guideline, cord, string; lineage, descent" (12c.), both from Latin linea "linen thread, string, plumb-line," also "a mark, bound, limit, goal; line of de

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