v. [a. Fr. entonne-r: see INTONE.] trans. = INTONE; occas. used arch. and techn. with reference to church music.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), IV. 1498. Now may thou entone a mery songe. Ibid., 1620. Entone sum ermonye!
1833. Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bd., Poet. Wks. 1850, I. 158. All the mortal nations … Are a dirge entoning.
Hence Entonement, the action of intoning.
1849–53. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, IV. xii. 137. Each took his own side of the choir for the entonement of the antiphons.
