cadence

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cadence,^[2] borrowed from Old French cadence (“rhythm”),^[3][4][5][6] from Old Italian cadenza (“conclusion of a movement in music; literally a falling”),^[3][7][8] from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“a falling”),^[3][7][9] formed from Latin cadēns, the present participle of cadō (“to fall”).^[7][8][9] The OED takes the immediate source as French,^[8] while Merriam-Webster takes the first sense directly from the Italian, formed from cadere (“to fall”) and the suffix -enza, and the later senses mostly from French.^[10] Etymonline and Barnhart trace the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“to fall”).^[7][3][9] Cadence is a doublet of chance, the regular French development of the same Latin noun.^[8][7][3] The verb, first recorded in 1748, is formed from the noun.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rhythm of verse or prose, rhetorical periods: about 1384, in Chaucer's House of Fame,^[8][3][11] where it is the only instance in Chaucer.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary has it about 1390 in A Talking of the Love of God and in Gower's Confessio Amantis, beside metre and rhyme.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense of the Latin source, a falling, was taken up by some 17th-century writers, but in Italian the word had early been applied to the musical or rhythmical fall of the voice, and it is in that sense that English first used it.^[8][12] Etymonline explains the notion as the fall of the voice in reading or speaking, as at the end of a sentence, and the rise and fall of tones in reciting.^[7] The fall of the voice is recorded from 1589, in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, and the general modulation of the voice from 1709;^[8] the musical close of a phrase from 1597, in Morley's Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke;^[8][7] and the beat of music, dancing or marching from 1605.^[8][7] Milton used it in 1667 for the rise and fall of natural sounds such as storms,^[8] Swift in 1726 for a regional accent,^[8] and Swinburne in 1868, by transfer, for a harmony of colours.^[8] The literal "falling" (1609–1667) and "the way a thing falls out; chance" (1603) did not survive.^[8][7] Johnson's definitions, "the flow of verses or periods" and "the fall of the voice", are quoted by the OED.^[8][13] In heraldry the derivative cadency came to mean the descent of a younger branch of a family,^[6] a sense Weekley thought associated with cadet.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – rhythm of verse or prose, in Chaucer.^[8][3]
• 1589 – the fall of the voice.^[8]
• 1597 – music, the close of a phrase or movement.^[8][7]
• 1603 – the falling out of an event; chance (obsolete).^[8]
• 1605 – the beat of music, dancing or marching.^[8][7]
• 1609 – a falling or sinking down (obsolete by 1667).^[8]
• 1667 – the rise and fall of natural sounds, in Milton's Paradise Lost.^[8]
• 1709 – the general modulation of the voice.^[8]
• 1726 – a regional or social accent, in Swift.^[8]
• 1748 – verb, to put into cadence or metre.^[8][10] Etymonline dates the verb to 1749.^[7]
• 1868 – a harmony of colours.^[8]
• 1907 – verb, to flow or move in rhythm.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rhythmic flow of sounds in speech or writing, especially one typical of a writer or a work: the measured cadence of the old sermons.^[10][15][8]
2. The beat or measure of any rhythmic movement, such as marching or dancing.^[10][15][8]
3. A fall in the pitch of the voice, as at the end of a sentence.^[15][8]
4. The modulation of the voice; intonation.^[15][8]
5. In music, a chord sequence or melodic formula that closes a phrase or section.^[15][10][8]
6. A distinctive way of speaking a language; an accent.^[8]

Verb

1. To put into rhythm or metre.^[10][8]
2. In music, to end in a cadence.^[10]

Word family

• cadenced
• cadential

Related words

• cadaver
• chance
• cadenza
• cadency
• cadent

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins