octave

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English octaves, a plural noun,^[2][3] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman octaves and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin octāvae,^[2] the noun use of the feminine plural of Latin octāvus (“eighth”), short for octāva diēs (“eighth day”).^[2][4][5] The adjective is from octō (“eight”),^[4][6][7] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *oktō(u) (“eight”),^[6] and the word is thus related to eight.^[4][3] It replaced, in the early 15th century, an earlier Middle English plural utaves,^[4][3] which had come through Anglo-Norman from the popular Old French form oitieve;^[4][8] the Anglo-Norman plural uitaves is recorded from 1121–25.^[9] The OED derives the musical sense from octava (“an octave”), found in a British source before 1487,^[2] and Etymonline from octāva pars (“eighth part”);^[4] Barnhart thinks it was perhaps borrowed from French, where it is recorded in 1534.^[3] The verse sense follows Italian ottava.^[2] The OED compares Ancient Greek ὄγδοος (ógdoos, “eighth”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seventh day after a church festival (the eighth when counted inclusively), or the period of eight days beginning with the festival: Etymonline dates the plural utaves to about 1300,^[4] and Barnhart to before 1325.^[3] The form octaves is first recorded about 1384, in a table of lessons of the early Wycliffite Bible.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The church sense was at first used only in the plural, following the Anglo-Norman and Latin plurals; the singular appears in 1440, in John Capgrave's life of Saint Norbert.^[2][5] The musical senses came from the Latin of music theory: the note eight degrees above or below another is recorded from about 1570, the interval from 1603, in Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch, and two notes an octave apart sounding together from 1656, in Blount's Glossographia.^[2] Barnhart takes Blount as the first record of the musical sense,^[3] and notes that it replaced the English word eighth, used in this sense in Middle English before 1450.^[3][4] A group of eight lines of verse is recorded from the 1580s,^[4] in Sidney's Arcadia,^[2] and the word now usually means the first eight lines of a sonnet.^[2][10] Johnson (1755) gave the eighth day after a festival, an interval of eight sounds in music, and eight days together after a festival.^[11] Later uses include an organ stop (1716), a position in fencing (1771), a cask holding an eighth of a pipe of wine (1864), Newlands's law of octaves in chemistry (1865), and, in physics, an interval between two frequencies one of which is double the other (1869).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – utaves, the octave of a church festival.^[4] Barnhart dates the form to before 1325.^[3]
• c. 1384 – octaves, in the plural, the eighth day after a festival or the eight days from it.^[2]
• 1440 – the church sense in the singular.^[2]
• c. 1570 – in music, the note eight degrees above or below a given note.^[2]
• before 1586 – a stanza of eight lines.^[2][4]
• 1603 – the musical interval of eight notes.^[2]
• 1656 – two notes an octave apart sounding together.^[2][3]
• 1716 – an organ stop sounding an octave above normal pitch.^[2]
• 1771 – a parrying position in fencing.^[2]
• 1865 – the law of octaves in chemistry.^[2]
• 1869 – in physics, an interval between frequencies in the ratio two to one.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The interval between two musical notes of which one has twice the frequency of the other, spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale: The chorus repeated the melody an octave higher.^[12][10][5]
2. A note eight degrees above or below another note; also, two such notes sounded together.^[12][10][2]
3. The series of notes, or of keys on an instrument, within this interval: His hands could just reach an octave on the piano.^[5][2]
4. An organ stop sounding an octave above the normal pitch.^[10][5][2]
5. A stanza of eight lines, especially the first eight lines of a sonnet, or ottava rima.^[10][12][2]
6. The seventh day after a church festival, the eighth counting inclusively, or the period of eight days beginning with the feast.^[10][12][2]
7. In fencing, the last of the eight standard parrying positions, guarding the lower outside of the body.^[5][2]
8. In physics, an interval between two frequencies, as of electromagnetic waves, one of which is twice the other.^[5][2]

Adjective

1. Consisting of eight units; also, sounding an octave above the keys played: an octave stop.^[10][2]

Word family

• octaval

Related words

• octavo
• oct-
• utas
• octet
• eight
• ottava rima
• eighth

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 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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