| 释义 |
▪ I. tone, n.|təʊn|
Forms: 4 ton, 4– tone; (5 toun, toyn, 5–6 toyne; 6 toone).
[Partly a. OF. ton (of voice, 13th c. in Littré) = Prov. ton, Cat. to, Sp. ton, tono, Pg. tom, tono, It. tuono:—L. ton-um, acc. of ton-us; and partly directly f. L. tonus ‘stretching, quality of sound, tone, accent, tone in painting’, in med.L. esp. as a term of music, a. Gr. τόνος ‘stretching, tension, raising of voice, pitch of voice, accent, musical mode or key, exertion of physical or mental energy’; f. strong grade of vbl. ablaut series τεν-, τον-, τα-, in τείν-ειν to stretch. In musical senses, much influenced by med.L. uses of tonus, and in more recent uses, largely influenced by Greek.
The early phonology is far from clear, the obscurity being increased by the changing values of the spellings o, oo, ou, oy, and their ambiguity at certain periods. The normal course of Fr. -on was to become -oun (= -uːn) in ME., and diphthongal -oun, -own (as in soun(d, noun, renown, bounty) in mod.Eng. An example of this appears c 1407 in sense 1, where Lydgate rimes toun, sown. But earlier than this we find tōn, tone (perh. a more learned or technical formation) direct from L. tonus, so well known in mediæval music, which became the prevalent form, and appears c 1325 in sense 2 b, riming with nōn ‘noon’. The normal fate of this was to become in 15–16th c. toon (= tuːn); cf. 1570 in sense 1, where Levins rimes toone with boone, moone, noone, soone, etc. But here again the influence of L. tonus appears to have prevailed, so as to make tone |toːn| the finally accepted form. The sound of toyn, toyne, in c 1460, 1521, is doubtful: -oy, -oi in Sc. and north. dial. generally meant long ō. The Sc. examples of tone in sense 2 c are also doubtful; they may be precursors of mod.Sc. |tøn, tʏn|, and more properly belong to tune, a divergent form of tone which has finally been differentiated as a distinct word, q.v. Tone, toon, and toun, might thus be viewed as separate words; but as the two latter are obs., and all the forms go back directly or indirectly to L. tonus, they are here treated as one, under the current spelling, but with the quotations separated.]
I.
1. a. A musical or vocal sound considered with reference to its quality, as acute or grave, sweet or harsh, loud or soft, clear or dull.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 9296 Ilkan þat sal won þar, Sal syng with angels,..In swilk tones þat sal be swete to here. 1667Milton P.L. v. 626 Harmonie Divine So smooths her charming tones, that Gods own ear Listens delighted. 1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xvii, The deep tone of a bell, rolling on the silence of the night. 1855Bain Senses & Int. ii. ii. §5 (1864) 213 Instruments and voices are distinguished by the sweetness of their individual tones.
βc1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 5211 The wherbles, nor the vnkouth touns, Nor the ravysshinge sowns, Nor the sugryd melodye Of ther soot[e] armonye.
γ1521J. T. in Bradshaw St. Werburge Prol. 1 Honour, ioye, and glorie, the toynes organicall.
δ1570Levins Manip. 168/37 A Toone, tonus [rimes boone, moone, noone, soone, etc.].
b. (Without a or pl.) Quality of sound.
1663Butler Hud. i. i. 459 Though Writers, for more lofty Tone Do call him Ralpho, 'tis all one. 1732T. Lediard Sethos II. viii. 219 The tone of your voice has become more masculine. 1908[Miss E. Fowler] Betw. Trent & Ancholme 82 You may get much variation of tone, by change of speed [with a thunderer].
γc1460Towneley Myst. xv. 13 A! myghtfull god, what euer this ment, so swete of toyn?
2. a. Mus. and Acoustics. A sound of definite pitch and character produced by regular vibration of a sounding body; a musical note.
difference-tone (or differential tone), summation-tone (or summational tone), the secondary or resultant tones produced when two notes of different pitch are sounded together with sufficient force, having rates of vibration equal respectively to the difference and the sum of those of the primary tones. combinational tone, fundamental tone, partial tone, resultant (etc.) tone: see the adjs.
c1400tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 98 Fyue tones er of Musyke. 1579E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Oct. 27 The Arcadian Melodie..being altogither on the fyft and vij tone, it is of great force to molifie and quench the kindly courage. a1650Crashaw Music's Duel 23 She Carves out her dainty voice..Into a thousand sweet distinguish'd tones. 1666Pepys Diary 8 Aug., Mr. Hooke..having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly makes with her wings..by the note that it answers to in musique. 1867Tyndall Sound vii. 282 Helmholtz inferred..that there are also resultant tones formed by the sum of the primaries, as well as by their difference. He thus discovered his summation tones before he had heard them. 1875Encycl. Brit. I. 118/2 These resultant tones..are termed difference-tones. 1876Bernstein Five Senses 280 Besides the difference tone, Helmholtz has pointed out a much weaker summational tone. 1881Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 130 By a simple tone is meant a musical sound in which no upper partials are present... By a compound tone is meant a tone where not only the fundamental note is present, but where upper partials are found in addition.
(b) Also, such a sound produced electrically; cf. pure tone s.v. pure a. 1 e. In Teleph., a pure tone or a more complex sound generated automatically to convey to a calling subscriber information about the line or the number required (see busy, dial, dialling, engaged, etc., tone under the first elements).
1878G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone (1879) 6 A series of vibrations, a definite number of which are produced in a given time, and of which we thus become cognizant, is called a tone. 1919J. Poole Pract. Telephone Handbk. (ed. 6) xxi. 364 The tones and interruptions required are as follows:—(1) A ‘tone’ of 24 interruptions per revolution of the armature or 400 interruptions per second, [etc.]. 1958G. Higgs in E. Molloy High Fidelity Sound Reproduction i. 10 The specification of a definite acoustical or electrical level necessarily involves reference to a steady-value test-tone of the stipulated frequency. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio v. 103 To calibrate for this, the most accurate method is to replay a reference tone (or some other steady sound). 1973T. J. Glattke in F. D. Minifie et al. Normal Aspects of Speech viii. 329 A series of three tones at 800 Hz..followed by a series at 800, 1,000, and 800 Hz..was differentiated by cats following cortical ablation. 1976T. H. Flowers Introd. Exchange Syst. iii. 67 Each tone is generated by a tone generator common to the whole exchange.
†b. (Without a or pl.) Pitch of a musical note; correct pitch, ‘tune’. Obs.
c1325Song in Rel. Ant. I. 292 Thu holdest nowt a note by God in riht ton [rime non, ‘noon’]. c1440Alphabet of Tales 88 A prowde yong monke began at sett it vp abown þaim iij notis;..yit som þat was on his syde fell in tone vnto hym and helpyd hym. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Tone, a Term in Musick, signifying a certain Degree of elevation, or depression of the Voice, or some other Sound.
†c. fig. in phr. in tone, ‘in tune’, in harmony or accordance; also, in good condition (quot. 1500–20); out of tone, out of order, in a state of disarrangement. Obs. [perh. belongs to tune.]
a1400–50Alexander 1343 So ware þai troubild out of tone quen þai þaire tild miste. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxix. 16 Quhen men that hes purssis in tone, Passes to drynk or to disione. 1513Douglas æneis Prol. 159 For Caxtoun puttis in his buik out of tone The storme furth sent be Eolus and Neptone. 1571Satir. Poems Reform. xxix. 15 All is owtte of tone. 1647Ward Simp. Cobler (1843) 84 When things and words in tune and tone doe meet.
γc1460Towneley Myst. xiii. 477 Hard I neuer none crak so clere out of toyne.
3. Mus.
a. In plainsong, any of the nine psalm-tunes (including the peregrine tone), each of which has a particular ‘intonation’ and ‘mediation’ and a number of different ‘endings’; commonly called Gregorian tones: see Gregorian A. 1.
1776Hawkins Hist. Mus. I. 358 The essential parts of each of the tones, that is to say, the beginning, the mediation, and the close. 1850Helmore Psalter Noted Pref., The intonation (beginning), mediation (middle), and cadence (ending) of the Tones. 1872[see Gregorian A. 1]. 1893Blackw. Mag. Aug. 253 The plainsong to which Psalms were sung was the 2nd Tone.
†b. Applied to the ecclesiastical modes (in which the Gregorian tones were composed). Obs.
1776Hawkins Hist. Mus. I. 347 The tones, as they stood adjusted by Saint Ambrose, were only four. Ibid., The ecclesiastical tones..answer exactly to the several keys, as they are called by modern musicians. 1782,1839[see mode n. 1 a (b)].
4. a. Mus. One of the larger intervals between successive notes of the diatonic scale; a major second; sometimes called whole tone, as opposed to semitone.
1609Douland Ornith. Microl. 18 A Tone..is the distance of one Voyce from another by a perfect second,.. a Tone is made betwixt all Voyces excepting mi and fa. 1651J. F[reake] Agrippa's Occ. Philos. 191 There are six Tones of all harmony, viz. 5 Tones, and 2 half Tones which make one Tone, which is the sixt. 1752tr. Rameau's Treat. Musick 89 The Sixth may be taken upon the Second of two Notes that ascend a whole Tone, or a Semitone. 1881Macfarren Counterp. ii. 3 A Tone is the interval of a major semitone and a minor semitone, either of which may be above or below the other.
†b. transf. Applied to the space between planets: see quots. Obs.
1601Holland Pliny (1634) I. 14 Pythagoras otherwhiles vsing the termes of Musicke, calleth the space between the earth and the Moone Tonus, saying that from her to Mercurie is halfe a tone and from him to Venus in manner the same space. 1660Stanley Hist. Philos. ix. (1701) 386/2 Pythagoras by Musical proportion calleth that a Tone, by how much the Moon is distant from the Earth.
5. a. A particular quality, pitch, modulation, or inflexion of the voice expressing or indicating affirmation, interrogation, hesitation, decision, or some feeling or emotion; vocal expression.
a1610Healey Theophrastus (1636) 25 To whom they speak in a great broken Tone, rayling on them. a1654Selden Table-T., Preaching (Arb.) 92 The tone in Preaching does much in working upon the Peoples Affections. 1697Dryden Virg. Past. ix. 6 The grim Captain in a surly Tone Cries out, pack up ye Rascals, and be gone. a1739Jarvis Quix. i. i. iv. (1742) 13 He raised his voice and with an arrogant tone cried out. 1796F. Burney Camilla II. 355 She asked in a tone of displeasure, who was there? 1817Jas. Mill Brit. India II. v. iv. 456 He tried the tone of humility; he tried that of audacity. 1824L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 368 There is not..an emotion of the heart, which has not its peculiar tone, or note of the voice, by which it is to be expressed. 1834Macaulay Ess., Pitt (1887) 311 Every tone, from the impassioned cry to the thrilling aside was perfectly at his [Pitt's] command.
b. The distinctive quality of voice in the pronunciation of words, peculiar to an individual, locality, or nation; an ‘accent’.
a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 204 Strangers never leave the Tones, They have been us'd as Children to pronounce. 1683Wood Life 19 May (O.H.S.) III. 50 Dr. Robert Morison..hath no command of the English [tongue], as being much spoyled by his Scottish tone. 1711Addison Spect. No. 29 ⁋4 The Tone, or (as the French call it) the Accent of every Nation in their ordinary Speech is altogether different from that of every other People. 1837Lockhart Scott I. ii. 88 The tone and accent remained broadly Scotch.
c. Intonation; esp. a special, affected, or artificial intonation in speaking.
1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 36 The greatest part of their Poems and songs are in the Persian Tongue, which they sing, not musically as we do, but with a certain tone, which though at first..not pleasing, yet by custom becomes agreeable enough to the ear. 1720Watts Art of Reading xiv, Let the Tone and Sound of your Voice in reading be the same as it is in speaking. 1748J. Mason Elocut. 16 There are some Kinds of Tone, which, tho' unnatural, yet, as managed by the Speakers, are not very disagreeable. 1795Mason Ch. Mus. (L.) You hear nobody converse in a tone, unless they have the brogue of some other country, or have got into a habit of altering the natural key of their voice when they are talking of some serious subject in religion. 189119th Cent. Nov. 828 The ‘tones’ are a short sermon..in which the principal tones taken by a preacher are given one after another.
d. transf. A particular style in discourse or writing, which expresses the person's sentiment or reveals his character; also spec. in literary criticism, an author's attitude to his subject matter or audience; the distinctive mood created by this. (Cf. 9.)
1765T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. I. 138 At first, the Naragansets gave kind words to the messengers..but they soon changed their tone. 1844H. Wilson Brit. India II. 108 He determined,..to adopt a tone of conciliation. 1866J. Martineau Ess. I. 147 His book..is bright and joyous in tone. 1929I. A. Richards Pract. Crit. iii. i. 183 A man writing a scientific treatise, for example, will put the Sense of what he has to say first... His Tone will be settled for him by academic convention. 1950F. B. Millett Reading Fiction 11 This tone, the general feeling which suffuses and surrounds the work, arises ultimately out of the writer's attitude toward his subject. 1959H. Gardner Business of Crit. 40 The tone of the close of the play. 1973G. W. Turner Stylistics vi. 186, I shall use..tone for the range of variation reflecting adjustments to an audience. 1977N.Y. Rev. Bks. 15 Sept. 40/2 His practical criticism is not much concerned with the structure of an individual poem except as an embodiment of crisis; it has little to say of diction, the metres, rhythm, syntax, or tone.
6. Phonetics.
a. A word-accent; a rising, falling, or compound inflexion, by which words otherwise of the same sound are distinguished, as in ancient Greek, modern Chinese, and other languages.
1679R. Hooke Diary 14 May (1935) 412 At Garways, Chinese Language Tones. 1763Foster Accent & Quantity Introd. 20 In Dionysius..accounts of high and low tones..assigned to certain syllables. 1791–1823Disraeli Cur. Lit., Chinese Lang., [The Chinese] can so diversify their monosyllabic words by the different tones which they give them, that the same character differently accented signifies sometimes ten or more different things. 1906Pinches Relig. Babyl. & Assyria i. 2 [They] ask themselves whether the people who spoke it were able to understand each other without recourse to devices such as the ‘tones’ to which the Chinese resort. 1909Jespersen Progress Lang. 86 In the Danish dialect spoken in Sundeved..two..tones are distinguished, one high and the other low... These tones often serve to keep words..apart that would be perfect homonyms but for the accent.
b. The stress accent (Fr. accent tonique) on a syllable of a word; the stressed or accented syllable.
1874Davidson Hebr. Gram. (1892) 46 A in the pretone, or a in the tone, or a in both places. 1891Cent. Dict., Tone. In Gram. A stress of voice on one of the syllables of a word.
II.
7. Physiol. The degree of firmness or tension proper to the organs or tissues of the body in a strong and healthy condition. Also in reference to a plant (quot. 1671).
This seems to be in part a distinct derivative from Gr. τόνος, with reference to the tension of the muscles or nerves. Cf. the Physiol. use of tonical 1 (1586) and tonic A. 1 (1649). (Matth. Sylvaticus, a 1480, has ‘tonus, id est vigor’.)
1669W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 139 This astringeth and keepeth up the right tone of the membranous parts. 1671Grew Anat. Plants i. ii. §23 With which Sap, the Cortical Body being dilated as far as its Tone..will bear. 1704F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 27 Exercise..affects the Solids [by] restoring the true Tone of the Parts. 1780Mirror No. 86 ⁋2 Of sovereign efficacy in restoring debilitated stomachs to their proper tone. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1826) I. Pref. 8 Thus, by alternate exercise and indulgence, their limbs acquire the firmest tone of health and vigour. 1888J. Payn Myst. Mirbridge (ed. Tauchn.) II. x. 104 The douche..would restore her tone.
fig.1835I. Taylor Spir. Despot. ix. 374 There is little tone in our church and chapel ethics. 1860Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) xi. §517 How, by this operation, tone is given to the atmospherical circulation of the world.
8. A state or temper of mind; mood, disposition.
a1744Bolingbroke Let. to Pope Wks. 1754 III. 316 The strange situation I am in, and the melancholy state of public affairs,..drag the mind down by perpetual interruptions, from a philosophical tone, or temper. 1779Mirror No. 60 ⁋3 Acquiring..a tone of mind which will render him incapable of going through the common duties of life. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk. I. 127 These hardy exercises produce also a healthful tone of mind and spirits.
9. A special or characteristic style or tendency of thought, feeling, behaviour, etc.; spirit, character, tenor; esp. the general or prevailing state of morals or manners in a society or community.
Partly from 7; but influenced also by 5.
a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 57 As the tone of his house, and the ebbe of his fortune then stood. 1747Chesterfield Lett. 16 Oct., Take the tone of the company that you are in, and do not pretend to give it. 1754Richardson Grandison III. xii. 188, I complained to one, and to another; but all were in a [= one] tone: And so I thought I would be contented. 1850Tennyson In Mem. lx. 1 A soul of nobler tone. 1884Times 5 Feb. 11/6 The tone of the market is..dull. 1908Westm. Gaz. 26 Sept. 2/1 In our elementary schools..the inculcation of a good moral tone is of the greatest importance.
III. 10. a. The prevailing effect of the combination of light and shade, and of the general scheme of colouring, in a painting, building, etc.
c1816Fuseli in Lect. Paint. viii. (1848) 512 The tone, that comprehensive union of tint and hue spread over the whole. 1843Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. ii. i. §2, I understand two things by the word Tone: first, the exact relief and relation of objects against and to each other in substance and darkness, as they are nearer or more distant, and the perfect relation of the shades of all of them to the chief light of the picture..: secondly, the exact relation of the colours of the shadows to the colours of the lights, so that they may be at once felt to be merely different degrees of the same light [etc.]. 1844Disraeli Coningsby iii. iv, The tone of rich and solemn light that pervaded all.
b. A quality of colour; a tint; spec. the degree of luminosity of a colour; shade.
1821Craig Lect. Drawing iii. 143 Tone, then, is the degree of dark that any object has compared with white, independently of its kind of colour. 1870F. R. Wilson Ch. Lindisf. 69 The tone of the interior is a tender silvery grey. 1874Symonds Sk. Italy & Greece 212 (Athens) The tones of the marble of Pentelicus have daily grown more golden. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. iv. 212 Tones, often called shades, signify colours mixed with varying proportions of white or black. 1893J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (1907) 91 A tone a little darker than the desired colour.
11. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) tone-quality; (sense 6) tone-curve, tone-group, tone-mark, tone-pattern, tone-sequence, tone-unit; tone-bearing adj.; (sense 9) tone-setter; tone-setting adj.; (sense 10) tone-production, tone-quality, tone-reinforcer, tone relation, tone-relationship, tone scheme, tone study, tone value, tone-work; tone-producing adj.; tone-arm, † (a) the tubular arm connecting the sound-box of a gramophone to the horn (obs.); (b) = pick-up arm s.v. pick-up a. a; tone burst, an audio signal used in testing the transient response of audio components; tone cluster Mus., a group of adjacent notes on a piano played simultaneously by placing the forearm or flat of the hand on the keys; cf. note-cluster s.v. note n.2 21; tone-colour (after Ger. tonfarbe), timbre; hence tone-coloured adj., tone-colouring; tone control, the adjustment of the proportion of high and low frequencies in reproduced sound; a device or manual control for achieving this; tone-deaf a., deaf to the tones of music; also transf. and fig., insensitive, lacking in perception; hence tone-deafness; toneful, tone-full a., full of musical or vocal sound; cf. tuneful a.; tone generator, an apparatus for electronically producing tones of a desired frequency; tone language Linguistics, a language which uses variations in pitch, in addition to different consonants and vowels, to distinguish words, e.g. Chinese; tone-long a., in Hebrew Grammar: see quot.; tone-master, a master or expert in the use of tones, an experienced musical composer; tone-measurer = monochord 1; tone-on-tone a., applied to designs, textiles, etc., composed of toning rather than contrasting shades of colour; tone-painting, the art of composing descriptive music; hence tone-painter; tone-picture, a descriptive piece of music; tone poem Mus. = symphonic poem s.v. symphonic a. (n.) 3; tone poet, (a) [Ger. tondichter] a musical composer; (b) spec. one who composes tone poems; hence tone poetry; tone-row Mus., the twelve notes of the chromatic scale arranged in a fixed order to form the basis of a composition; tone sandhi Linguistics [sandhi], in tone languages: the differences between the tones of words through the influence of contiguous tonal patterns; tone separation Photogr. = posterization; tone-syllable, the stressed syllable; tone-tester, an instrument for determining the differential sensibility for (musical) tones.
1907T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Spring & Summer 249/1 Columbia Graphophone..patent aluminium *tone-arm. 1923Gramophone Apr. p. vii/2 (Advt.), 18 models of Tonearms with and without Goosenecks. 1946[see record groove s.v. record n. 13 b]. 1981Popular Hi-Fi Mar. 85/3 This is a direct drive, quartz locked, fully automatic turntable with integrated tonearm.
1971B. Mafeni in J. Spencer Eng. Lang. W. Afr. 107 There is a syllabic nasal /N/ [in Nigerian Pidgin] which is *tone-bearing and is always homorganic with the succeeding consonant. 1981Word 1980 XXXI. 186 Other syllables..may be higher, lower, or on the same level relative to the onset of the tone-bearing syllable.
1967Electronics 6 Mar. 82/1 (Advt.), See the little boxes. See what they can do... *Tone burst..trigger..sweep. 1978Gramophone Jan. 1336/1 The toneburst oscillogram..shows that the output across an 8-ohm dummy load is virtually identical with the input signal.
1921Freeman 13 Apr. 112/2 The significance of the *tone cluster, like that of the single tone, is to be found in its possibility of combinations with other tone clusters. 1937N. Slonimsky Music since 1900 122 [12 March 1912] At the San Francisco Music Club Henry Cowell performs for the first time in public, on the day after his fifteenth birthday, piano tone-clusters on white or black keys, struck with the forearm. 1973Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 11/2 He watched the Sinfonietta's resident pianist..elbowing his way through the tone clusters of an early Roberto Gerhard. 1983Listener 28 July 30/3 The music abounds in such special effects as tone-clusters like smudged chords, microtones, fragmentation of the text, whistling, whispers, shouts.
1881A. J. Hipkins in Grove Dict. Mus. III. 193 The tone of the Ruckers clavecins has never been surpassed for purity and beauty of *tone-colour (timbre).
1895–6Cal. Univ. Nebraska 216 No other instruments require so much patient and unremitting toil in their mastery as [the violin, viola, violoncello]; and none are so well adapted for the expression of all shades of musical feeling or so nearly resemble the human voice with all its possibilities of *tone-coloring.
1930Electronics July 195/1 *Tone control was the most evident technical idea at the Trade Show of the Radio Manufacturers Association in June. 1934Discovery Nov. 324/2 The models..have effective tone and volume controls fitted. 1974Harrods Christmas Catal. 70/3 Electric Guitar..with volume and tone controls.
1922H. E. Palmer Eng. Intonation i. 3 That part which is concerned chiefly with the *tone-curves irrespective of their meanings has been called Tonetics. 1953C. E. Bazell Linguistic Form 99 ‘Questioning intonation’ (a special tone-curve) in English.
1894Du Maurier Trilby I. 169 She was quite *tone-deaf, and didn't know it. 1932R. Knox Broadcast Minds iv. 85 When we ask him precisely what it is which ‘religion’ can give us that is inaccessible to a nature..tone-deaf to religion, he has nothing to point to except those moments themselves. 1972F. Warner Lying Figures iii. 35 We are spiritually tone-deaf. Mum's the word!
1884T. Barr Man. Dis. Ear iv. ii. 459 If this partial *tone-deafness is not connected with disease of the conducting apparatus, the anomaly is probably due to cochlear disturbance. 1941F. Matthiessen Amer. Renaissance i. iv. 34 The honesty of Whittier's effort was somewhat vitiated by the tone-deafness that robbed his verse of any full variety of cadences. 1973Listener 14 June 786/3 Mr Nixon..has persistently shown..a disturbing tone-deafness to the legal restraints which..are built into the American system. 1977Proc. R. Soc. Med. LXX. 134/1 Tone deafness is a defect of pitch discrimination in which the relationship of one musical tone to others cannot be accurately assessed or imitated.
1838Keightley Grk. Mythol. 338 (Odyssey xix. 518) She..poureth forth her voice *Tone-full, lamenting her son Itylos. 1925T. Dreiser Amer. Trag. I. i. xi. 77 The none too toneful piano. 1927Observer 10 Apr. 24 The short, quick flutter of the wing and the most toneful croak of satisfaction. 1942Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XXXII. 292 We now have in the laboratory a *tone generator capable of sounding tones of any desired harmonic structure. 1980Sci. Amer. Oct. 74/1 Each phoneme is generated by a particular setting of various tone generators, noise generators and acoustic filters.
1922H. E. Palmer Eng. Intonation i. 6 The more serious difficulty is the teaching of the semantic values of the *tone-groups. 1977Bull. School Oriental & African Stud. XL. 654/2 The structure of the basic intonational unit, the tone-group, consists of an obligatory tonic, i.e. the syllable where the pitch movement identifying the tonic type begins, and an optional pretonic element.
1930R. Paget Human Speech 188 In the *Tone-languages, the melody of phonation is tied to the articulation. 1971G. Ansre in J. Spencer Eng. Lang. W. Afr. 157 Most of the languages of the region [sc. West Africa] use pitch in their phonological patterning in a way which has earned them the term ‘tone languages’. 1978Sci. Amer. Nov. 96/1 Many African and Asian languages are tone languages.
1874Davidson Hebr. Gram. (1892) 14 [Vowels] called *Tone-long, ā, ē, ō, that is vowels not long by nature but from occupying a certain position in relation to the place of tone, and therefore changeable, when their relation to the tone alters. Ibid. 15 The final accented short syllable and the pretonic open have tone-long vowels.
1924H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. 6 When *tone-marks are provided, the use of the sign [′] may therefore be entirely dispensed with. 1964M. Schubiger in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 265 The tone-marks are mine.
1939Country Life 11 Feb. p. xxxviii/2 This Matita two-piece redingote and dress is in a *tone-on-tone effect in light and dark grey. 1965‘L. Egan’ Detective's Due i. 10 Beige tone-on-tone carpet. 1979Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. a–12/3 (Advt.), From the tip of its tone-on-tone toe to its sleek, stacked heel, it's everything you'd expect from Evan Picone.
1903A. W. Patterson Schumann 49 How first the pianoforte, next the orchestra, and lastly the string quartet suggested sound pictures to the *tone-painter.
1897Daily Tel. 31 Mar. 10/4 Even great musicians do not appear at their best in *tone-painting. 1905Q. Rev. July 103 Tone-painting, he [Wagner] admits, may be used in jest.
1931T. H. Pear Voice & Personality 74 The *tone-pattern of the Welsh sentence. 1961Amer. Speech XXXVI. 221 Tone patterns illustrated by Kingdon's tonetic stress marks.
1901Pall Mall G. 3 May (Cass. Supp.), What may be called the ground⁓work of his *tone-picture.
1889G. B. Shaw London Music 1888–89 (1937) 68 A long, scrappy movement which is neither bravura nor *tone poem. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xviii. 142 Jacques Benoit-Mechin, who wrote tone poems about South America. 1977Gramophone Apr. 1561/3 Nor does the performance..really project the work as the blazing tone poem that it self-evidently is. 1983Listener 3 Nov. 36/4 At seven and a half minutes it is perhaps a little short-winded for a full-blown tone poem.
1874F. J. Crowest (title) The great *Tone-poets. 1892Review of Reviews Sept. 289/1 A most original tone-poet. 1901Pall Mall G. 1 Apr. 5 The great English word-poet and the great German tone-poet seemed to meet together on that imminent verge. 1903A. W. Patterson Schumann p. viii, The writer..has endeavoured..to let the great tone poet speak to the readers through his own thoughts.
1890*Tone poetry [see absolute music s.v. absolute a. 16].
1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 528 A continuous, though variable, stream of *tone-producing energy.
1889Brinsmead Hist. Pianoforte 172 The *tone-pulsator, patented 1878,..connects the ring-bridge with the continuous rim.
1934Webster, *Tone quality. 1936Discovery July 224/1 The tone-quality [can] be very considerably altered. 1961Times 10 Mar. 22/2 No conductor in my experience has shaped a melody with more tenderness and lustre of tone-quality.
1884A. J. Hipkins in Grove Dict. Mus. IV. 143/1 These bars..promote the elasticity of this most important *tone reinforcer.
1903R. Fry Let. 6 Mar. (1972) I. 204 The *tone relations are nearer to Moretto's in breadth. 1955Times 9 May 3/5 He was before everything a colourist, and all the machinery of his art—composition, drawing, tone relation, and touch— was organised in the interests of his ruling passion.
1936Musical Q. XXII. 14 (title) Schoenberg's *tone-rows and the tonal system of the future. 1958Times 6 June 4/3 Composition in tone-rows of 12 notes. 1967A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in England i. 38 The scale of a folk tune is the series of notes used, the tone-row and no more.
1925E. Sapir in Language I. 45 In Sarcee, an Athabaskan language..there is a true middle tone and a pseudo-middle tone which results from the lowering of a high tone to the middle position because of certain mechanical rules of *tone sandhi. 1968P. Kratochvíl Chinese Lang. Today ii. 38 One of the factors which cause modifications of these general tendencies of tones in continuous speech is the influence of the tone environment of the given syllable. This is what is known as tone sandhi.
1943*Tone separation [see posterize v.]. 1977Tone separation [see posterization].
1924H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. 21 Any pair or more of tone-groups in one sentence constitutes a *tone-sequence. 1973Archivum Linguisticum IV. 17 Halliday..though he describes certain tone sequences..implies that these are no more than chance associations of tones.
1973Publishers Weekly 9 July 44/2 A *tone-setter on the field, he contributed to five Packer championships and two Super Bowl wins. 1979C. E. Schorske Fin-de-Siècle Vienna p. xxiii, The intellectual tone-setters among college students.
1962Y. Malkiel in Householder & Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 11 Many *tone-setting Academy dictionaries. 1978Language LIV. 430 Condillac and other tone-setting figures were concerned solely with generalities.
1893Sir G. Reid in Westm. Gaz. 4 Feb. 2/1 My own way of working is to make a *tone study with the utmost rapidity, to seize the impression of the moment, if possible, and then, for the knowledge of form and detail to make a careful and accurate drawing.
1847Webster (citing Stuart), *Tone-syllable. 1905Athenæum 29 July 140/3 One of its main characteristics is that the nature of the metre is determined by the tone-syllable alone.
1893Yale Psychol. Studies 81 The instrument used in making the experiments was composed of an adjustable pitchpipe with an index-arm moving over a large scale. The instrument..may for brevity be called the *tone-tester.
1964Crystal & Quirk Prosodic & Paralinguistic Features in Eng. iv. 50 We come now to the system which has the *tone-unit..as its actual matrix. 1981Word 1980 XXXI. 154 The vertical bar marks the ‘onset’ of the tone unit.
1927R. H. Wilenski Mod. Movement in Art 35 Taught successfully to draw ‘by the shadows’ and paint ‘by the *tone values’. 1967E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage i. 9 It is easy to assess the relative tone values of strong contrasts, such as black and white.
1894Creighton & Titchener Wundt's Hum. & Anim. Psychol. v. 76 note, The vibration-rate of these new *tone-waves is the sum of the vibration-rates of the original tones.
1894Herkomer in Daily News 28 Apr. 6/7 To use process work for the reproduction of line alone, leaving *tone-work to express the more complete work of the artist, which must be rendered again by an artist-engraver.
▸ tone dialling n. Telecomm. telephone dialling in which each digit is transmitted as a particular combination of tones; cf. pulse dialling n. at pulse n.1 Compounds 2.
[1963IEEE Trans. Communications & Electronics 82 3/3 In designing the Touch-Tone dialing system an important problem had to be resolved before adequate data were available.] 1976Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Jrnl. 26 Nov. e28/5 One new feature, *tone dialing, is planned for introduction to Earlsville customers in December. 1992Which? Nov. 31/1 If you're among the one in five subscribers to BT who can't use a tone-dialling telephone, it won't work. 2000Sunday Mail (Glasgow) (Nexis) 12 Mar. 8 The [answering] machine has 10 memories and tone dialling and is hearing aid compatible.
▪ II. tone, pron. and a. Now only dial.
Forms: α. (north. dial. and Sc.) (3 þat an), 4 þe tan, 4–5 þe tane, 4–6 the tayne, 6 the taine, 4–9 the tane, (9 the taen). β. 3–5 þe ton, (4 þe tonn), 4–5 þe toon, þe tone, 4–6 the ton, 4–7 the tone, 5 the toon, (6 the tonn, 7 the t'one). γ. (without the) 6–7 ton, 6–8 tone, 8 t'on, 9 t'one, (t'an).
[Early ME. þe tān, þe tôn, for earlier þet or þat ān, ‘the one’ (see that dem. a. 5); the t of þet being attached to ān, ôn, when þe became the general form of the definite article. Normally used in antithesis to þe toþer, the tother, which had a similar origin: see tother. This usage cannot have arisen until the OE. antithesis of óðer{ddd}óðer, as in L. alter{ddd}alter, gave place to án{ddd}oðer, as in Fr. l'un{ddd}l'autre; nor until þæt (þet, þat) was usable for masc. and fem. as well as neuter, i.e. between 1200 and 1250: see one numeral 18, other a. B. 1, 2. Used absolutely or pronominally, the tone is found in literature down to c 1600, and in many dialects to the present day; in Sc. the tane is in ordinary use. But as an adj., preceding a n., esp. before a consonant, it was reduced at an early date to þe tā, þe tô, still in Sc. the tae (see to a.); although the full the tone{ddd}the tother was also frequent, until gradually superseded in literary Eng. by the one{ddd}the other, dialectally and colloquially also tone{ddd}tother, later sometimes written t'one{ddd}t'other. This, in the northern Eng. dialects in which the definite article regularly appears as tĕ, tă, t', may really stand for t'one, t'other; but elsewhere, where the article is not te, t', it is perhaps rather 't one{ddd}'t other, due to the dropping of the from the tone{ddd}the tother. In both the tone and the tother, the is omitted after a possessive pronoun or case, as dial. his tone or to hand, Sc. his tae hand = ‘one of his hands’. For full illustration of existing dialect use, see Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. Tone.]
The one (of two): often opposed to tother.
1. as pron.
α [a1225Leg. Kath. 1373 (MS. C) Þa ȝeide þus þ̶ an, & elnede þe oðre.] 13..Cursor M. 1533 (Cott.) Tua pilers þai mad, o tile þe tan, Þe toþer it was o merbul stan [Gött. and Fairf. þat an, þe toþer; Trin. þat oon, þat oþer]. c1440Alphabet of Tales 167 Me thoght att ij angels led þe tane of you vnto hevyn & þe toder vnto hell. 1513Douglas æneis v. vi. 25 The tane born of Epiria, And the todir was of Archadia. a1774Fergusson Drink Ecl. Poems (1845) 49 Brandy the tane, the tither whiskey. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxxviii, They will neither want the tane nor the tother while Lord Evandale lives.
β1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 4005 Þe toon men calle Eutycyus, Þe touþer hyght Florentyus. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 190 Neiþer þe ton ne þe toiþer. [c1386Chaucer Pard. T. 479 That oon spak thus vn to that oother Thou knowest wel thou art my sworn brother.] a1425Cursor M. 13966 (Trin.) His sistres two, Þe toon was martha to seyn And þat oþere Maudeleyn. 1426Rolls of Parlt. V. 409/1 My said ii Lordes or the toon of hem. 1522More De quat. Noviss. Wks. 79/2 Within a litle while die the tone may, the tother muste. 1591Harington Orl. Fur. Pref. ⁋vj, The tone begins, Arma virumque cano. The tother [begins] [etc.]. 1891G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk. 448 Both the tone an' the tother on 'em.
γ1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 123 Vse ton for thy spinning, leaue Mihel the tother. c1590Marlowe Faust. ix. 19 Well, tone of you hath this goblet about you. 1632Brome Court Beggar iii. i. Wks. 1873 I. 230 I'le jowle your heads together, and so beat ton with tother. a1800Pegge Suppl. Grose, T'on T'other, one another. Derb. 1825Brockett N.C. Words s.v. Tane, Gi me t'an or tother. 1900[see Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. tone].
2. as adj. preceding a n.
α, βc1250Gen. & Ex. 2196 Al but ðe ton broðer symeon. 13..Cursor M. 7074 (Gött.) Bot as þe tonn half a-gayn þat oþer. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 284 Men speken now of Crist bi þe toon kynde and now by þe toþer. c1400Destr. Troy 13206 The ton Egh in the toile lost tynt he belyue. 1529More Dyaloge iii. i. Wks. 206 The hole church had neuer taken all the tone sorte and reiected all the tother. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) I. 254 At the tonn end set Cesar in his trune, And at the tother stude king Caratac. 1552Lyndesay's Poems To Rdrs. (E.E.T.S. p. 318), The quhilkis ar verray fals, And wantis the tane half. 1584Cogan Haven Health ccxli. (1636) 274 That wee lie on the tone side. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. i. v. 48 The t'one halfe of an old broken great Pitcher.
γa1765K. Estmere xxvii. in Child Ballads iii. (1885) 53/1 Tone day to marrye Kyng Adlands daughter, Tother daye to carrye her home. a1800Pegge Suppl. Grose s.v. T'on-End, It must be set a t'on end.
▪ III. tone, v.|təʊn|
[f. tone n.]
I.
1. trans. Mus. †a. To sound with the proper tone or musical quality; to intone. Obs.
c1325in Rel. Ant. I. 292 Thu tones nowt the note ilke be his name, Thu bitist a-sonder bequarre, for bemol I the blame. 1570Levins Manip. 168/38 To Toone, modulari.
b. To give a good or proper tone to.
1891Advt., Pianos toned and repaired.
2. intr. To issue forth in musical tones. rare.
1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 74 Wyth ympnys and psalmys wel tonyng Thousandis of aungells aftyr hym dyd goon. 1850L. Hunt Autobiog. ix. 160 The sounding words came toning out of his dignified utterance like ‘sonorous metal’.
3. trans. To utter with a musical sound, or in a special or affected tone; to intone.
1660South Serm., Matt. xiii. 52 (1727) IV. i. 52 Those strange new Postures used by some in the Delivery of the Word. Such as shutting the Eyes,..speaking through the Nose, which I think cannot so properly be called Preaching, as Toning of a Sermon. 1704Swift Mech. Operat. Spirit §2 Misc. (1711) 295 Tuning and toning each Word, and Syllable, and Letter to their due Cadence. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 334 With pleasing Twang he tones his Prose,..And draws John Calvin through the Nose. 1796Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 399 He sung or toned his verses. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. i, The boy..commenced toning a psalm-tune through his nose with imperturbable gravity. 1883W. C. Smith N. Country Folk 185 The Common prayer Was sweetly toned to the fishers there.
†4. To lay the accent or stress upon, to accent (a word or syllable). Obs.
1683Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxii. ⁋5 If it be Set thus, that that That that that Man would have stand at the beginning of the Line should stand at the end; it will, by toning and laying Emphasis on the middlemost That become good Sense.
II.
5. To alter or modify the tone or general colouring of; to give the desired tone to (also const. down: cf sense 6 b); spec. (a) To cover (a painting) with oil or varnish so as to soften the colouring; (b) To alter the tone or tint of (a photograph) in the process of finishing it. Also absol.
1831J. Constable Let. 13 Oct. (1966) IV. 357, I think the large sail..much too light. I shall like it toned down very considerably. 1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 215 It was not unfrequent for the possessors of old pictures to have them toned, as it was called. 1868M. C. Lea Man. Photogr. xiii. 219 This bath tones much like the preceding; gives brown, purple-black, or black tones, and by overtoning, blue. Ibid. 220 Landscapes should be toned only with the acetate or benzoate bath. 1893J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (1907) 49 A gold bath will only tone when in a neutral or slightly alkaline condition. 1902Westm. Gaz. 13 Mar. 2/2 One can always send the lace..and get it toned exactly.
b. intr. To receive or assume a tone, tint, or shade of colour; esp. in Photogr.
1868M. C. Lea Man. Photogr. xiii. 218 If a washed print be simply thrown into a dilute solution of chloride of gold, it will tone. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 257/2 If delayed many hours the prints will not tone readily.
c. To harmonize with in colouring. Also with in and without const.
18..St. Louis Spectator (U.S.) XI. 327 (Cent.) Beaded passementerie, which tones in with the delicate shades of blue, and pink chiffon, and dark velvet. 1904Westm. Gaz. 20 Jan. 3/2 In each case her hat tones with the dress. 1907Ibid. 25 Sept. 2/1 The red- or brown-tiled wooden chalets at once tone in with Nature. 1976W. J. Burley Wycliffe & Schoolgirls i. 31 The colour scheme was old gold from the carpet to the wallpaper, cushions and curtains. Everything was ‘to tone’ as Mrs Clarke would..have said.
III. 6. trans. To impart a tone to (in various senses of the n.); to modify, regulate, or adjust the tone or quality of; to give physical or mental tone to, to brace.
1811Shelley St. Irvyne viii, A degree of solemnity, mixed with concealed fierceness, toned his voice as he spoke. 1859J. Cumming Ruth ii. 18 The husband tones into a loftier pitch the spiritual and moral character of the wife. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. xiii. (1894) 334 Your mind is properly toned by these influences. 1884W. C. Smith Kildrostan i. ii. 11 Nor many years had toned his heedlessness.
b. tone down, to lower the tone, quality, or character of; to soften, make less emphatic. tone up, to raise or improve the tone of, to give a higher or stronger tone to.
1847Dickens Dombey (1848) xx. 197 The Native..handed him..his hat; which..the Mayor wore with a rakish air on one side of his head, by way of toning down his remarkable visage. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xxvi. 371 These [ice-ridges]..become more and more toned down by the action of sun and air. 1864Reader No. 98. 603/1 By toning up public sentiment. 1884Times (weekly ed.) 29 Aug. 14/1 These rosy impressions were decidedly toned down on closer inspection. 1896Chatauqua Mag. Dec. Advt., Some remedy that will tone-up the nervous system. 1906F. L. Dodd Municip. Milk 9 A custom has grown up called ‘toning down the milk’, which consists in the addition of skimmed milk to such an extent as just to reduce the percentage of fat to the legal minimum.
c. intr. for pass. tone down, to become lowered, weakened, or softened in tone; tone up, to rise or improve in tone.
1850Kingsley Alt. Locke xiii, The ivory and vermilion of the complexion had toned down together into still richer hues. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. ix, Gradually toning down to a motherly strain. 1881Chicago Times 14 May, Trade toned up considerably under the influence of warm weather. 1885L'pool Daily Post 11 Apr. 5/2 Public excitement with respect to Russia has considerably toned down.
d. The vb.-stem in Comb. ˈtone-up, an act or means of raising to a higher tone; a strengthening or improvement.
1943W. S. Churchill Second World War (1951) IV. 852 It is time to have another tone-up of security arrangements. 1950Times 2 Feb. 2/7 He was a man of 37, and if I had known he was going on this course I should have advised a period of drill training as a tone-up.
▪ IV. tone
Sc. var. of tune; obs. f. dhoney, teen n.1, town, tun; obs. pa. pple. of take v. (see to v. Obs.); obs. pl. of toe. |