harmonize

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French harmoniser (“to bring into harmony”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French in the 15th and 16th centuries,^[4] and the English verb was earlier also armonise.^[3] The French verb is formed from Old French harmonie, also armonie,^[2][5][4] with the suffix -iser.^[2] The noun is from Latin harmonia,^[5][7][4] from Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía, “joining, joint, agreement, concord of sounds”),^[4][5][7] from ἁρμός (harmós, “joint”),^[4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to join, fit together”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sing or play in harmony: 1483, in Caxton's translation of the Golden Legend, the OED's only example of this rare, obsolete early use.^[4][5] Dictionary.com dates the verb to 1475–85.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to accord, go well together" appears in 1629, in Lightfoot.^[4][5] The transitive verb followed: to make harmonious in sound, from 1700 in Dryden,^[4][5] to reduce to inner harmony or artistic agreement, from 1727,^[4][8] and to bring two things into agreement, from 1767.^[4][5] Johnson (1755), quoting Dryden, knew only the active verb, "to adjust in fit proportions; to make musical".^[9] The technical sense of adding chords to a melody is recorded from 1790,^[4][5] and the intransitive one of forming a musical concord from 1855.^[4] Collins and Merriam-Webster now list singing or performing in harmony as a current sense, although the OED marks its own early example of it as obsolete.^[10][2][4]

Timeline

• 1483 – to sing or play in harmony.^[4][5]
• 1629 – to be in harmony, to accord or agree.^[4][5]
• 1700 – to make concordant in sound, to attune.^[4][5]
• 1727 – to reduce to internal harmony; to make agreeable in artistic effect.^[4]
• 1767 – to bring two or more things into agreement; to reconcile.^[4][5]
• 1790 – in music, to add notes to a melody so as to form chords.^[4][5]
• 1852 – to form a harmonious combination with something.^[4]
• 1855 – in music, to form a concord.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring into harmony or agreement; to reconcile: Her tact harmonized the demands of the two factions.^[10][4][8]
2. To be in harmony or agreement; to go well together: The new wing harmonizes with the old stone house.^[10][2][4]
3. (music) To add notes to a melody so as to form chords.^[10][4][8]
4. (music) To sing or play in harmony with others.^[10][2]
5. To compare and fit together parallel narratives.^[10][4][8]

Word family

• harmonization
• harmonizer
• harmonizable
• disharmonize
• reharmonize

Related words

• harmony
• harmonious
• harmonic

Usage notes

British English also spells it harmonise.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins