diatonic

Etymology

It is borrowed from French diatonique,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from the 14th century,^[2] from Late Latin diatonicus,^[2][3][7][6] from Ancient Greek διατονικός (diatonikós, “at intervals of a tone”),^[2][7][6] from διάτονος (diátonos, “stretching, extending; of the diatonic scale”).^[2][6][8] The Merriam-Webster, Klein and Etymonline analyses take the adjective from διατείνειν (diateínein, “to stretch out”), formed from διά (diá, “through”) and τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”);^[8][6][3][9] the OED, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as "through" and τόνος (tónos, “tone”),^[2][7][5] which Barnhart derives from the same verb.^[4] Etymonline traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[3] Barnhart thinks the English word was probably also influenced by Italian diatonico.^[4] American Heritage, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Dictionary.com derive the word directly from the Latin, with no French step,^[10][8][11] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford allow either.^[7][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the ancient Greek musical scale, one of three with the chromatic and the enharmonic, in which the interval of a tone was used: 1603, in Holland's translation of Plutarch,^[2][8][4] in the spelling diatonique according to Barnhart.^[4] Etymonline has about 1600,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1590–1600.^[11] Hoad finds an older form diatonical in the 16th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word first described a type of Greek tetrachord, made up of two whole tones and a lower semitone.^[8][12][5] It passed to modern music in 1694, in Holder's Treatise of Harmony, for the scale that keeps to the notes proper to its key with no chromatic alteration,^[2][4][3] and then for melodies and harmonies built from those notes.^[2] A rare figurative use, "normal, free from crotchets", appeared in the Contemporary Review in 1871.^[2] Diatonically is recorded from the early 18th century and diatonicism from the mid-20th.^[12]

Timeline

• 1603 – of an ancient Greek scale using the interval of a tone.^[2][4]
• 1694 – in modern music, keeping to the notes of a key without chromatic alteration.^[2][4]
• 1871 – figurative, normal, free from crotchets.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (music) Of or based on a scale of five tones and two semitones, such as the standard major or minor scale.^[13][8][12]
2. (music) Using only the notes proper to a key, without chromatic alteration: The hymn stays diatonic until its last bar.^[13][2][12]
3. (music, historical) Of an ancient Greek tetrachord, made up of two tones and a lower semitone.^[8][2][12]

Word family

• diatonically
• diatonicism
• undiatonic

Related words

• tone
• tonic
• tend
• thin

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins