Everyday LifeGreek → English
Tonic
/ˈtɒnɪk/noun
Something that restores strength or vigour, and in music the home note of a key.
The Greek roots
τόνος
tónos
a stretching, tension, pitch
τείνειν
teínein
to stretch
Literally: “of stretching”
The story of the word
Underneath all of it is a rope pulled tight. Muscle tone, a tone of voice, the tonic key and a tonic for the nerves all descend from that single image of tension. Tonic water is named for the quinine dissolved in it, sold in British India as a malaria remedy before anyone thought to add gin.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → New Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1640s
Same family
tonemonotonebaritoneisotonic
In a sentence
Two weeks by the sea worked as a tonic on all of them.