Art & MusicGreek → English
Tune
/tuːn/noun
A sequence of notes that hangs together as a recognisable whole.
The Greek roots
τόνος
tónos
stretching, tension, pitch
Literally: “tension of a string”
Follow a root:τόνος13 words
The story of the word
Pull a string tighter and it sounds higher, and Greek τόνος named the pulling, from τείνω, to stretch. Latin tonus and French ton brought it into English as tone; tune is an unexplained English variant of the same word that surfaced in the 14th century and then went its own way. So a tune, a tonic, an intonation and a muscle's tone are all the same idea of tension, and tuning a guitar is literally adjusting it.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
tonetonicintonationmonotonebaritone
In a sentence
He could not name the tune but he could whistle every bar of it.
The piano had not held its tune since the move.