Words & WritingGreek → English
Poem
/ˈpoʊəm/noun
A composition in verse, or in language shaped as closely as verse.
The Greek roots
ποίημα
poíēma
a thing made
Literally: “something made”
Follow a root:ποίημα1 word
The story of the word
The root verb ποιεῖν means to make, in the plainest sense: shoes, laws, trouble. A ποίημα was therefore any product of craft before it narrowed to a made thing in words. Scots kept the same idea in its own vocabulary, calling a poet a makar, and Aristotle's treatise on the subject is titled with the adjective for the making art rather than anything about inspiration.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 1540s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
poetpoetryonomatopoeiapharmacopoeia
In a sentence
He read one poem, badly, and sat down to real applause.