modulate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin modulor (“to regulate sounds by the rules of melody, set to music, make music, measure”),^[2][3][4][5] through the past participial stem modulāt-.^[2][6][5] The Latin verb comes from modulus (“small measure”),^[2][3][4] a diminutive of modus (“measure, manner”),^[4][7][5] from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”).^[7][4] Barnhart and Etymonline instead consider a back-formation from the older noun modulation, with the Latin participle as an influence or an alternative source;^[8][7] that noun is recorded before 1398 as modulacioun, in Trevisa, and comes from Old French modulation or directly from Latin modulātiō.^[8] The OED compares Middle French moduler (1458), Italian modulare (before 1492) and Spanish modular (mid 15th century), and notes a slightly earlier English adjective modulate, "harmonious" (about 1530 to 1592), taken from the Latin participle.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To sing or intone a song correctly, by the rules of melody: about 1567, in M. Parker's Whole Psalter.^[2][3] The Oxford dictionaries agree on the mid 16th century,^[6][9] and Dictionary.com on 1550–60,^[10] while Barnhart and Etymonline start from the 1610s.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

From about 1570 it also meant to vary the tone or pitch of the voice or of a note,^[2] and Johnson (1755) still defined it only as forming sound to a certain key or notes.^[11] Malcolm's Treatise of Musick (1721) has the technical sense of passing from one key into another.^[2][7] The general idea of setting something in due measure, softening or tempering it, is dated by Etymonline to the 1620s,^[7] by Hoad to the 17th century^[5] and by the OED to 1783, in Burke.^[2] Key-change gave a figurative use, a shift from one condition, style or mood into another, in Hardy's The Return of the Native (1878).^[2] The sense of exerting a controlling influence, chiefly in technical contexts, is found by the OED in Emerson (1847),^[2] although Etymonline dates it only by 1964.^[7] In 1908 physics and engineering applied the word to varying the amplitude or frequency of a wave in accordance with a signal,^[2][7] and later to the device (1920) and to the signal itself (1930).^[2] The source of the English noun, modulātiō, had already joined measure and music, as "rhythmical measure, singing and playing, melody".^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1567 – to sing or intone correctly (obsolete by 1636).^[2][3]
• c. 1570 – to vary the tone, pitch or strength of the voice or a note.^[2]
• 1698 – intransitive, to play on an instrument (obsolete and rare).^[2]
• 1721 – in music, to pass from one key to another.^[2][7]
• 1783 – to regulate, adjust or tone down.^[2] Etymonline dates this general sense to the 1620s.^[7]
• 1847 – to exert a modifying influence on.^[2]
• 1878 – to change from one form or condition into another.^[2]
• 1908 – to vary the amplitude or frequency of a wave.^[2][7]
• 1930 – to impress a signal on a carrier wave.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To vary the tone, pitch or strength of a sound, especially the voice: The actor modulated his voice to fill the hall.^[12][3][2]
2. To adjust or keep something to the proper degree; to temper or soften it.^[12][3][2]
3. To exert a modifying or controlling influence on something; to regulate it, chiefly in technical contexts.^[2]
4. (music) To pass from one key into another.^[2][12]
5. (physics, electronics) To vary the amplitude, frequency or another characteristic of a wave or signal, so that it carries another signal.^[2][12]
6. To change from one form, style or mood into another.^[2]
7. (obsolete, c. 1567–1636) To intone or sing a song.^[2][3][5]

Word family

• modulability
• modulator
• modulatory
• modulative
• unmodulated
• modulation
• remodulate
• phase modulation

Related words

• demodulate
• modem
• module
• modulus
• mode
• mete
• modest

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 p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins