gamut - 04/15/03 07:20 PM
A word often used on the Board, but its etymology never mentioned. I was reading a review
of Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers, and encountered it. It occurred to me I had no idea as to
its etymology, so looked it up:
The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
gamut
SYLLABICATION:
gamˇut
PRONUNCIATION:
gmt
NOUN:
1. A complete range or extent: a face that expressed a gamut of emotions,
from rage to peaceful contentment. 2. Music The entire series of recognized
notes.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, the musical scale, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, low G :
gamma, lowest note of the medieval scale (from Greek, gamma; see gamma)
+ ut, first note of the lowest hexachord (after ut, first word in a Latin hymn to
Saint John the Baptist, the initial syllables of successive lines of which were
sung to the notes of an ascending scale CDEFGA: Ut queant laxis resonare
fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte
Iohannes).
So the name of the lowest note was extended to mean the whole range.
of Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers, and encountered it. It occurred to me I had no idea as to
its etymology, so looked it up:
The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
gamut
SYLLABICATION:
gamˇut
PRONUNCIATION:
gmt
NOUN:
1. A complete range or extent: a face that expressed a gamut of emotions,
from rage to peaceful contentment. 2. Music The entire series of recognized
notes.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, the musical scale, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, low G :
gamma, lowest note of the medieval scale (from Greek, gamma; see gamma)
+ ut, first note of the lowest hexachord (after ut, first word in a Latin hymn to
Saint John the Baptist, the initial syllables of successive lines of which were
sung to the notes of an ascending scale CDEFGA: Ut queant laxis resonare
fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte
Iohannes).
So the name of the lowest note was extended to mean the whole range.