Why this word is great
STICHOMETRY — [Noun] The measurement of a text by the number of standard lines it contains, an ancient practice for quantifying and organizing literary works. From the Byzantine Greek στιχομετρία (stikhometría), from στίχος (stíkhos, "line, verse") + μέτρον (métron, "measure") + -ία (-ía, abstract noun suffix). Unlike stichography, which denotes the scribal act of writing in verse-lines, or pagination, which imposes a modern grid of numbered leaves, stichometry is an act of accounting—a sober reckoning of intellectual labor, material, and cost. It is the faint vertical tally in a papyrus roll's margin, the contractual rate for a scribe's weary wrist, and the profound simplicity of reducing a gospel to a transactional number. This silent arithmetic beneath the music reminds us that literature begins as physical stuff, measured out by the breath of the line.