Forms: 4 ton, 4– tone; (5 toun, toyn, 5–6 toyne; 6 toone). [Partly a. OF. ton (of voice, 13th c. in Littré) = Prov. ton, Cat. to, Sp. ton, tono, Pg. tom, tono, It. tuono:—L. ton-um, acc. of ton-us; and partly directly f. L. tonus ‘stretching, quality of sound, tone, accent, tone in painting,’ in med.L. esp. as a term of music, a. Gr. τόνος ‘stretching, tension, raising of voice, pitch of voice, accent, musical mode or key, exertion of physical or mental energy’; f. strong grade of vbl. ablaut series τεν-, τον-, τα-, τείν-ειν to stretch. In musical senses, much influenced by med.L. uses of tonus, and in more recent uses, largely influenced by Greek.
The early phonology is far from clear, the obscurity being increased by the changing values of the spellings o, oo, ou, oy, and their ambiguity at certain periods. The normal course of Fr. -on was to become -oun (= -ūn) in ME., and diphthongal -oun, -own (as in soun(d, noun, renown, bounty) in mod. Eng. An example of this appears c. 1407 in sense 1, where Lydgate rhymes toun, sown. But earlier than this we find tōn, tone (perh. a more learned or technical formation) direct from L. tonus, so well known in mediæval music, which became the prevalent form, and appears c. 1325 in sense 2 b, rhyming with nōn ‘noon.’ The normal fate of this was to become in 15–16th c. toon (= tŭn); cf. 1570 in sense 1, where Levins rhymes toone with boone, moone, noone, soone, etc. But here again the influence of L. tonus appears to have prevailed, so as to make tone (tōn) the finally accepted form. The sound of toyn, toyne, in c. 1460, 1521, is doubtful: -oy, -oi in Sc. and north. dial. generally meant long ō. The Sc. examples of tone in sense 2 c are also doubtful; they may be precursors of mod.Sc. (tön, tün), and more properly belong to TUNE, a divergent form of tone which has finally been differentiated as a distinct word, q.v. Tone, toon, and toun, might thus be viewed as separate words; but as the two latter are obs., and all the forms go back directly or indirectly to L. tonus, they are here treated as one, under the current spelling, but with the quotations separated.]
I. 1. A musical or vocal sound considered with reference to its quality, as acute or grave, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, clear or dull.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 9296. Ilkan þat sal won þar, Sal syng with angels,… In swilk tones þat sal be swete to here.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 626. Harmonie Divine So smooths her charming tones, that Gods own ear Listens delighted.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xvii. The deep tone of a bell, rolling on the silence of the night.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., II. ii. § 5 (1864), 213. Instruments and voices are distinguished by the sweetness of their individual tones.
β. c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 5211. The wherbles, nor the vnkouth touns, Nor the ravysshinge sowns, Nor the sugryd melodye Of ther soot[e] armonye.
γ. 1521. J. T., in Bradshaw, St. Werburge, Prol. 1. Honour, ioye, and glorie, the toynes organicall.
δ. 1570. Levins, Manip., 168/37. A Toone, tonus [rhymes boone, moone, noone, soone, etc.].
b. (Without a or pl.) Quality of sound.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 459. Though Writers, for more lofty Tone Do call him Ralpho, ’tis all one.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VIII. 219. The tone of your voice has become more masculine.
1908. [Miss E. Fowler], Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 82. You may get much variation of tone, by change of speed [with a THUNDERER].
γ. c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xv. 13. A! myghtfull god, what euer this ment, so swete of toyn?
2. Mus. and Acoustics. A sound of definite pitch and character produced by regular vibration of a sounding body; a musical note.
Difference-tone (or differential tone), summation-tone (or summational tone), the secondary or resultant tones produced when two notes of different pitch are sounded together with sufficient force, having rates of vibration equal respectively to the difference and the sum of those of the primary tones. Combinational, fundamental, partial, resultant (etc.) tone: see the adjs.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 98. Fyue tones er of Musyke.
1579. E. K., Gloss. Spenser’s Sheph. Cal., Oct., 27. The Arcadian Melodie … being altogither on the fyft and vij tone, it is of great force to molifie and quench the kindly courage.
a. 1650. Crashaw, Music’s Duel, 23. She Carves out her dainty voice … Into a thousand sweet distinguish’d tones.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 8 Aug. Mr. Hooke … having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly makes with her wings … by the note that it answers to in musique.
1867. Tyndall, Sound, vii. 282. Helmholtz inferred … that there are also resultant tones formed by the sum of the primaries, as well as by their difference. He thus discovered his summation tones before he had heard them.
1875. Encycl. Brit., I. 118/2. These resultant tones … are termed difference-tones.
1876. Bernstein, Five Senses, 280. Besides the difference tone, Helmholtz has pointed out a much weaker summational tone.
1878. G. B. Prescott, Sp. Telephone (1879), 6. A series of vibrations, a definite number of which are produced in a given time, and of which we thus become cognizant, is called a tone.
1881. Broadhouse, Mus. Acoustics, 130. By a simple tone is meant a musical sound in which no upper partials are present…. By a compound tone is meant a tone where not only the fundamental note is present, but where upper partials are found in addition.
† b. (Without a or pl.) Pitch of a musical note; correct pitch, ‘tune.’ Obs.
c. 1325. Song, in Rel. Ant., I. 292. Thu holdest nowt a note by God in riht ton [rhyme non, ‘noon’].
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 88. A prowde yong monke began at sett it vp abown þaim iij notis;… yit som þat was on his syde fell in tone vnto hym and helpyd hym.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Tone, a Term in Musick, signifying a certain Degree of elevation, or depression of the Voice, or some other Sound.
† c. fig. in phr. in tone, ‘in tune,’ in harmony or accordance; also, in good condition (quot. 1500–20); out of tone, out of order, in a state of disarrangement. Obs. [perh. belongs to TUNE.]
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 1343. So ware þai troubild out of tone quen þai þaire tild miste.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxix. 16. Quhen men that hes purssis in tone, Passes to drynk or to disione.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, Prol. 159. For Caxtoun puttis in his buik out of tone The storme furth sent be Eolus and Neptone.
1571. Satir. Poems Reform., xxix. 15. All is owtte of tone.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler (1843), 84. When things and words in tune and tone doe meet.
γ. c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xiii. 477. Hard I neuer none crak so clere out of toyne.
3. Mus. In plainsong, any of the nine psalm-tunes (including the peregrine tone), each of which has a particular ‘intonation’ and ‘mediation’ and a number of different ‘endings’; commonly called Gregorian tones: see GREGORIAN A. 1.
1776. Hawkins, Hist. Mus., I. 358. The essential parts of each of the tones, that is to say, the beginning, the mediation, and the close.
1850. Helmore, Psalter Noted, Pref. The intonation (beginning), mediation (middle), and cadence (ending) of the Tones.
1872. [see GREGORIAN A. 1].
1893. Blackw. Mag., Aug., 253. The plainsong to which Psalms were sung was the 2nd Tone.
† b. Applied to the ecclesiastical modes (in which the Gregorian tones were composed). Obs.
1776. Hawkins, Hist. Mus., I. 347. The tones, as they stood adjusted by Saint Ambrose, were only four. Ibid. The ecclesiastical tones … answer exactly to the several keys, as they are called by modern musicians.
1782, 1839. [see MODE sb. 1 a (b)].
4. Mus. One of the larger intervals between successive notes of the diatonic scale; a major second; sometimes called whole tone, as opposed to semitone.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 18. A Tone … is the distance of one Voyce from another by a perfect second,… a Tone is made betwixt all Voyces excepting mi and fa.
1651. J. F[reake], Agrippa’s Occ. Philos., 191. There are six Tones of all harmony, viz. 5 Tones, and 2 half Tones which make one Tone, which is the sixt.
1752. trans. Rameau’s Treat. Musick, 89. The Sixth may be taken upon the Second of two Notes that ascend a whole Tone, or a Semitone.
1881. Macfarren, Counterp., ii. 3. A Tone is the interval of a major Semitone and a minor semitone, either of which may be above or below the other.
† b. transf. Applied to the space between planets: see quots. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 14. Pythagoras otherwhiles vsing the termes of Musicke, calleth the space between the earth and the Moone Tonus, saying that from her to Mercurie is halfe a tone and from him to Venus in manner the same space.
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos., IX. (1701), 386/2. Pythagoras by Musical proportion calleth that a Tone, by how much the Moon is distant from the Earth.
5. A particular quality, pitch, modulation, or inflexion of the voice expressing or indicating affirmation, interrogation, hesitation, decision, or some feeling or emotion; vocal expression.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1636), 25. To whom they speak in a great broken Tone, rayling on them.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-T., Preaching (Arb.), 92. The tone in Preaching does much in working upon the Peoples Affections.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., IX. 6. The grim Captain in a surly Tone Cries out, pack up ye Rascals, and be gone.
a. 1739. Jarvis, Quix., I. I. iv. (1742), 13. He raised his voice and with an arrogant tone cried out.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, II. 355. She asked in a tone of displeasure, who was there?
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. V. iv. 456. He tried the tone of humility; he tried that of audacity.
1824. L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 368. There is not … an emotion of the heart, which has not its peculiar tone, or note of the voice, by which it is to be expressed.
1834. Macaulay, Ess., Pitt (1887), 311. Every tone, from the impassioned cry to the thrilling aside was perfectly at his [Pitt’s] command.
b. The distinctive quality of voice in the pronunciation of words, peculiar to an individual, locality, or nation; an ‘accent.’
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 204. Strangers never leave the Tones, They have been us’d as Children to pronounce.
1683. Wood, Life, 19 May (O.H.S.), III. 50. Dr. Robert Morison … hath no command of the English [tongue], as being much spoyled by his Scottish tone.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 29, ¶ 4. The Tone, or (as the French call it) the Accent of every Nation in their ordinary Speech is altogether different from that of every other People.
1837. Lockhart, Scott, I. ii. 88. The tone and accent remained broadly Scotch.
c. Intonation; esp. a special, affected, or artificial intonation in speaking.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 36. The greatest part of their Poems and songs are in the Persian Tongue, which they sing, not musically as we do, but with a certain tone, which though at first … not pleasing, yet by custom becomes agreeable enough to the ear.
1720. Watts, Art of Reading, xiv. Let the Tone and Sound of your Voice in reading be the same as it is in speaking.
1748. J. Mason, Elocut., 16. There are some Kinds of Tone, which, tho’ unnatural, yet, as managed by the Speakers, are not very disagreeable.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus. (L.). You hear nobody converse in a tone, unless they have the brogue of some other country, or have got into a habit of altering the natural key of their voice when they are talking of some serious subject in religion.
1891. 19th Cent., Nov., 828. The ‘tones’ are a short sermon … in which the principal tones taken by a preacher are given one after another.
d. transf. A particular style in discourse or writing, which expresses the person’s sentiment or reveals his character. (Cf. 9.)
1765. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. 138. At first, the Naragansets gave kind words to the messengers … but they soon changed their tone.
1844. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. 108. He determined,… to adopt a tone of conciliation.
1866. J. Martineau, Ess., I. 147. His book … is bright and joyous in tone.
6. Phonetics. a. A word-accent; a rising, falling, or compound inflexion, by which words otherwise of the same sound are distinguished, as in ancient Greek, modern Chinese, and other languages.
1763. Foster, Accent & Quantity, Introd. 20. In Dionysius … accounts of high and low tones … assigned to certain syllables.
1791–1823. Disraeli, Cur. Lit., Chinese Lang. [The Chinese] can so diversify their monosyllabic words by the different tones which they give them, that the same character differently accented signifies sometimes ten or more different things.
1906. Pinches, Relig. Babyl. & Assyria, i. 2. [They] ask themselves whether the people who spoke it were able to understand each other without recourse to devices such as the ‘tones’ to which the Chinese resort.
1909. Jespersen, Progress Lang., 86. In the Danish dialect spoken in Sundeved … two … tones are distinguished, one high and the other low…. These tones often serve to keep words … apart that would be perfect homonyms but for the accent.
b. The stress accent (Fr. accent tonique) on a syllable of a word; the stressed or accented syllable.
1874. Davidson, Hebr. Gram. (1892), 46. A in the pretone, or a in the tone, or a in both places.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tone. In Gram. A stress of voice on one of the syllables of a word.
II. 7. Physiol. The degree of firmness or tension proper to the organs or tissues of the body in a strong and healthy condition. Also in reference to a plant (quot. 1671).
This seems to be in part a distinct derivative from Gr. τόνος, with reference to the tension of the muscles or nerves. Cf. the Physiol. use of TONICAL 1 (1586), and TONIC A. 1 (1649). (Matth. Sylvaticus, a. 1480, has ‘tonus, id est vigor.’)
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 139. This astringeth and keepeth up the right tone of the membranous parts.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. ii. § 23. With which Sap, the Cortical Body being dilated as far as its Tone … will bear.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 27. Exercise … affects the Solids [by] restoring the true Tone of the Parts.
1780. Mirror, No. 86, ¶ 2. Of sovereign efficacy in restoring debilitated stomachs to their proper tone.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1826), I. Pref. 8. Thus, by alternate exercise and indulgence, their limbs acquire the firmest tone of health and vigour.
1888. J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge (ed. Tauchn.), II. x. 104. The douche … would restore her tone.
fig. 1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., ix. 374. There is little tone in our church and chapel ethics.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea (Low), xi. § 517. How, by this operation, tone is given to the atmospherical circulation of the world.
8. A state or temper of mind; mood, disposition.
a. 1744. Bolingbroke, Lett. to Pope, Wks. 1754, III. 316. The strange situation I am in, and the melancholy state of public affairs,… drag the mind down by perpetual interruptions, from a philosophical tone, or temper.
1779. Mirror, No. 60, ¶ 3. Acquiring … a tone of mind which will render him incapable of going through the common duties of life.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 127. These hardy exercises produce also a healthful tone of mind and spirits.
9. A special or characteristic style or tendency of thought, feeling, behavior, etc.; spirit, character, tenor; esp. the general or prevailing state of morals or manners in a society or community.
Partly from 7; but influenced also by 5.
a. 1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg. (Arb.), 57. As the tone of his house, and the ebbe of his fortune then stood.
1747. Chesterf., Lett., 16 Oct. Take the tone of the company that you are in, and do not pretend to give it.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, III. xii. 188. I complained to one, and to another; but all were in a [= one] tone: And so I thought I would be contented.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lx. 1. A soul of nobler tone.
1884. Times, 5 Feb., 11/6. The tone of the market is … dull.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 26 Sept., 2/1. In our elementary schools … the inculcation of a good moral tone is of the greatest importance.
III. 10. The prevailing effect of the combination of light and shade, and of the general scheme of coloring, in a painting, building, etc.
c. 1816. Fuseli, in Lect. Paint., viii. (1848), 512. The tone, that comprehensive union of tint and hue spread over the whole.
1843. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. II. i. § 2. I understand two things by the word Tone: first, the exact relief and relation of objects against and to each other in substance and darkness, as they are nearer or more distant, and the perfect relation of the shades of all of them to the chief light of the picture…: secondly, the exact relation of the colours of the shadows to the colours of the lights, so that they may be at once felt to be merely different degrees of the same light [etc.].
1894. Disraeli, Coningsby, III. iv. The tone of rich and solemn light that pervaded all.
b. A quality of color; a tint; spec. the degree of luminosity of a color; shade.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, iii. 143. Tone, then, is the degree of dark that any object has compared with white, independently of its kind of colour.
1870. F. R. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 69. The tone of the interior is a tender silvery grey.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Greece, 212 (Athens). The tones of the marble of Pentelicus have daily grown more golden.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 212. Tones, often called shades, signify colours mixed with varying proportions of white or black.
1893. J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 91. A tone a little darker than the desired colour.
11. attrib. and Comb., as tone-production, -quality, -reinforcer, -relationship, scheme, study, -work (sense 10); tone-producing adj.; tone-color (after Ger. tonfarbe), timbre; hence tone-colored adj., -coloring; tone-deaf a., deaf to the tones of music; tone-full a., full of musical or vocal sound; tone-long a., in Hebrew Grammar: see quot.; tone-master, a master or expert in the use of tones, an experienced musical composer; tone-measurer, = MONOCHORD 1; tone-painting, the art of composing descriptive music: tone-picture, a descriptive piece of music; tone-poet [Ger. tondichter], a musical composer; tone-syllable, the stressed syllable; tone-tester, an instrument for determining the differential sensibility for (musical) tones.
1881. A. J. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., III. 193. The tone of the Ruckers clavecins has never been surpassed for purity and beauty of *tone-colour (timbre).
1895–6. Cal. Univ. Nebraska, 216. No other instruments require so much patient and unremitting toil in their mastery as [the violin, viola, violoncello]; and none are so well adapted for the expression of all shades of musical feeling or so nearly resemble the human voice with all its possibilities of *tone-coloring.
1894. Du Maurier, Trilby, I. 169. She was quite *tone-deaf, and didn’t know it.
1854. Boston Even. Transcript, 1 Jan., 4/6, headline, *Tone-deafness, and the musical ear of vocalists.
1838. Keightley, Grk. Mythol., 338 (Odyssey XIX. 518). She … poureth forth her voice *Tone-full, lamenting her son Itylos.
1874. Davidson, Hebr. Gram. (1892), 14. [Vowels] called *Tone-long, ā, ē, ō, that is vowels not long by nature but from occupying a certain position in relation to the place of tone, and therefore changeable, when their relation to the tone alters. Ibid., 15. The final accented short syllable and the pretonic open have tone-long vowels.
1905. Q. Rev., July, 103. *Tone-painting, he [Wagner] admits, may be used in jest.
1901. Pall Mall G., 3 May (Cass. Supp.). What may be called the groundwork of his *tone-picture.
1874. F. J. Crowest (title), The great *Tone-poets.
1901. Pall Mall G., 1 April, 5. The great English word-poet and the great German tone-poet seemed to meet together on that imminent verge.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 528. A continuous, though variable, stream of *tone-producing energy.
1889. Brinsmead, Hist. Pianoforte, 172. The *tone-pulsator, patented 1878,… connects the ring-bridge with the continuous rim.
1884. A. J. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 143/1. These bars … promote the elasticity of this most important *tone reinforcer.
1893. Sir G. Reid, in Westm. Gaz., 4 Feb., 2/1. My own way of working is to make a *tone study with the utmost rapidity, to seize the impression of the moment, if possible, and then, for the knowledge of form and detail to make a careful and accurate drawing.
1847. Webster (citing Stuart), *Tone-syllable.
1905. Athenæum, 29 July, 140/3. One of its main characteristics is that the nature of the metre is determined by the tone-syllable alone.
1893. Yale Psychol. Studies, 81. The instrument used in making the experiments was composed of an adjustable pitchpipe with an index-arm moving over a large scale. The instrument … may for brevity be called the *tone-tester.
1894. Creighton & Titchener, Wundt’s Hum. Anim. Psychol., v. 76, note. The vibration-rate of these new *tone-waves is the sum of the vibration-rates of the original tones.
1894. Herkomer, in Daily News, 28 April, 6/7. To use process work for the reproduction of line alone, leaving *tone-work to express the more complete work of the artist, which must be rendered again by an artist-engraver.
