Obs. or arch. [ad. L. consonāntia: see prec. and -ANCY.]
1. Agreement or pleasing combination of sounds; harmony, concord.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 203. Tubal of Caym was fyndere of consonancie and of musyk.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., vi. 29. A multitude of Musical Consonancies.
1694. W. Holder, Harmony (1731), 31. Consonancy and Dissonancy are the Result of the Agreement, mixture or uniting (or the contrary) of the undulated Motions of the Air or Medium, caused by the Vibrations by which the sounds of distinct Tunes are made.
1870. Rossetti, Ball. & Sonn. (1881), 217. And mute before The house of Love, hears through the echoing door His hours elect in choral consonancy.
2. Quality of being consonant or accordant; agreement, accord, harmony.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. viii. (1495), 867. By proporcion and consonancie and acorde of colour.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 443 b. Sweete agreable consonancye of Authors.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 295. Let mee coniure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth.
1692. Sir T. P. Blount, Ess., 149. Such a Consonancy, and Uniformity of Judgment.
1759. B. Stillingfl., Misc. Tracts, p. xxiv. A system which is obscure merely from its consonancy to nature.
1732. Eliz. Blower, Geo. Bateman, I. 107. Bateman’s honest heart, good sense … brilliant conversation, from their consonancy with her own, had rivetted the … affections of Cecilia.
1833. Lamb, Elia, Amicus Rediv. Had he been drowned in Cam, there would have been consonancy in it.
† b. A ‘harmony.’ Obs. rare.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 73. Who patched together, I wot not what kind of mangled consonancy of the Gospels.
3. Resemblance or correspondence of sound in words or syllables.
1658. W. Burton, Itin. Anton., 45. [For] Vindomora, he sends us to Vanduara, in Scotland, meerly for some very small consonancy in the names.
1757. Hurd, Marks Imitation, 68. Though these consonancies chyming in the writer’s head, he might not always be aware of the imitation.
b. (See quot.)
1856. J. Williams, Gram. Edeyrn, § 1796. What is consonancy? The correspondence of consonants, and counterchange of vowels.
