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OP 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 Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.
gamut
SYLLABICATION:
gam·ut
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.
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