Art & MusicGreek → English
Neume
/njuːm/noun
One of the marks written above the words of medieval chant to show the shape of the melody.
The Greek roots
νεῦμα
neûma
nod, sign
Literally: “a nod, a sign”
Follow a root:νεῦμα1 word
The story of the word
The derivation is contested: some read it from νεῦμα, a nod or gesture, others from πνεῦμα, breath, and medieval Latin sources use pneuma both for a neume and for a long wordless melisma. The earliest neumes, in ninth-century manuscripts, give only the rise and fall of the tune and assume the singer already knows it. Staff lines came later, and with them the square notation that chant books still print today.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Medieval Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
In a sentence
Without the staff, the neumes are a reminder rather than an instruction.