Etymologically
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music

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈmjuː.zɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English musike, borrowed from Old French musique, and directly borrowed from Latin mūsica (“the art of music”),[2][3] from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), short for μουσικὴ τέχνη (mousikḕ tékhnē, “art of the Muses”),[4][3] the feminine of μουσικός (mousikós, “of the Muses; musical, educated”),[2] from Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).[2][4] The Latin word is also the source of Spanish música, Italian musica, German Musik and Dutch muziek.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The art or science of combining sounds pleasingly in order and rhythm (mid-13th century),[2][5] first found about 1250 in The Story of Genesis and Exodus.[3]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greece mousikē covered any art over which the Muses presided, especially music and lyric poetry,[2][6] and Latin musica also took in poetry.[2] In English the word passed from the art to the sounds themselves (14th century),[5] then to a band of musicians (16th century)[5] and to the written score (1650s).[2][5] The cry of a pack of hounds has been called music since 1600.[7] The spelling music, often credited to Noah Webster, is recorded from 1633 and was used by Johnson, Gray and Wordsworth before Webster's dictionaries.[3][2] A music box (1773, in Goldsmith) was first a barrel organ and by 1845 the wind-up mechanical toy.[2][3] Music hall (1842, in Dickens) was a hall for concerts and since 1857 a hall licensed for musical entertainment.[3][2] Musical comedy (1765) was shortened to musical in 1938.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – musike (The Story of Genesis and Exodus).[3]
  • c. 1380 – musicyen, musician (Chaucer).[3]
  • 14th century – musical sounds.[5]
  • c. 1421 – musical (Lydgate).[3]
  • 16th century – a company of musicians, a band.[5]
  • 1600 – the cry of hounds.[7]
  • 1633 – the spelling music.[3]
  • 1650s – a written or printed score.[2]
  • 1773 – music box.[2][3]
  • 1842 – music hall.[3]
  • 1938 – musical, a musical play or film.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The art of arranging sounds in time through melody, harmony, rhythm and tone colour.
  2. Vocal or instrumental sounds having melody, harmony or rhythm.
  3. A style of such art belonging to a people or tradition: Indian music, rock music.
  4. A musical composition, or its written or printed score.
  5. Any pleasing or harmonious sounds.
  6. (hunting) The cry of a pack of hounds.

Word family

  • musicless
  • muse
  • museum
  • musician
  • musical
  • mosaic

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)