Art & MusicGreek → English
Monochord
/ˈmɒnəkɔːrd/noun
A single string stretched over a soundboard with a movable bridge, used to demonstrate and measure musical intervals.
The Greek roots
μόνος
mónos
single, alone
χορδή
chordḗ
string, gut
Literally: “one string”
The story of the word
The Greeks called it the κανών, the rule or measuring rod, which says exactly what it was for: it measured intervals as ratios of string length. Stop the string halfway and you get the octave, at two thirds the fifth, at three quarters the fourth, and on that instrument the Pythagoreans built the claim that number governs harmony. χορδή originally meant gut, the material the string was made of, and it also gave anatomy the vocal cords and the notochord.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
chordnotochordmonologueharmonic
In a sentence
He slid the bridge to the halfway mark and the monochord sounded an octave up.