Art & MusicGreek → English
Diatonic
/ˌdaɪəˈtɒnɪk/adjective
Using the seven notes of a standard major or minor scale, without added sharps or flats.
The Greek roots
διά
diá
through
τόνος
tónos
tone, tension
Literally: “through the tones”
The story of the word
τόνος is a stretching before it is a note, from τείνειν, to stretch, because a gut string is stretched until it sounds. The diatonic genus of Greek theory stepped through whole tones rather than crowding small intervals together, and διά, through, records that stride. The modern major and minor scales inherit the label, and a piano's white keys are the diatonic set left standing when the black ones are ignored.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
chromatictonemonotoneintonation
In a sentence
The tune stays diatonic until the last four bars.
Most folk melodies are diatonic and none the poorer for it.