Origin: bef. 900; ME
vers(
e),
fers line of poetry, section of a psalm, OE
fers < L
versus a row, line (of poetry), lit., a turning, equiv. to
vert(
ere) to turn (ptp.
versus) +
-tus suffix of v. action, with
dt >
s; akin to
-ward, worth 2 
Synonyms:1. Verse, stanza, strophe, stave are terms for a metrical grouping in poetic composition.
Verse is often mistakenly used for
stanza, but is properly only a single metrical line. A
stanza is a succession of lines (verses) commonly bound together by a rhyme scheme, and usually forming one of a series of similar groups that constitute a poem:
The four-line stanza is the one most frequently used in English. Strophe (originally the section of a Greek choral ode sung while the chorus was moving from right to left) is in English poetry practically equivalent to “section”; a
strophe may be unrhymed or without strict form, but may be a stanza:
Strophes are divisions of odes. Stave is a word (now seldom used) that means a stanza set to music or intended to be sung:
a stave of a hymn; a stave of a drinking song. 4, 5, 6. See poetry.