also metre, "poetic measure," Old English meter "meter, versification," from Latin metrum, from Greek metron "meter, a verse; that by which anything is measured; measure, length, size, limit, proportion," from PIE root *me- (2) "to measure" (see meter (n.2)). Possibly reborrowed early 14c. (after a 300-year gap in recorded use) from Old French metre, with specific sense of "metrical scheme in verse," from Latin metrum.
meter (n.2)
also metre, unit of length, 1797, from French mètre (18c.), from Greek metron "measure," from PIE root *me- (2) "to measure" (cognates: Greek metra "lot, portion," Sanskrit mati "measures," matra "measure," Avestan, Old Persian ma-, Latin 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.
meter (n.3)
"device for measuring," abstracted 1832 from gas-meter, etc., from French -mètre, used in combinations (in English from 1790), from Latin metrum "measure" or cognate Greek metron "measure" (see meter (n.2)). Influenced by English meter "person who measures" (late 14c., agent noun from mete (v.)). As short for parking meter from 1960. Meter maid first recorded 1957; meter reader 1963.
meter (v.)
"to measure by means of a meter," 1884, from meter (n.3). Meaning "install parking meters" is from 1957.
例文
1. Only a third of these households thought it reasonable to meter water.
これらの家庭の3分の1だけが水量計で計量するのが合理的だと考えている。
2.They have the right to come in and inspect the meter .
彼らは表を調べる権利がある。
3.A man came to read the gas meter .
ガスメーターを調べに来た男がいた。
4.Space the desk a meter apart so that the pupils can 't cheat.
生徒の不正行為を防ぐために机を1メートル間隔で並べた。
5.He walked away from all his competitors in the 3000- meter race.