semitone

Etymology

It is formed from English semi- + tone,^[2][3][4][5] the view of the revised OED, which only compares Late Latin semitonium, recorded from the 5th century, Medieval Latin semitonus, recorded from the 10th century, and Middle French semithon, from the late 14th century.^[2] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford instead derive it from Old French semiton and the Medieval Latin semitonus.^[6][7] Compare also Ancient Greek ἡμιτόνιον (hēmitónion), the source of hemitone.^[2][7] The musical tone goes back through Latin tonus (“a sound, tone”) to Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “vocal pitch; a stretching”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The musical interval of about half a tone: 1486, in the Boke of St Albans.^[2] Etymonline gives the late 15th century and the form semiton,^[6] and Merriam-Webster the 15th century,^[3] while Dictionary.com's date of 1600–10 is later than the OED's.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of music, for what Etymonline describes as a minor second, the smallest interval in ordinary scales.^[6] Johnson (1755), following Bailey, defined it as one of the degrees of the intervals of concords.^[8] In art it came to mean a tint between the light and the dark, by 1782 according to Etymonline,^[6] in the late 18th century according to the Shorter Oxford,^[7] and with a first quotation from 1821 in the OED.^[2] From 1818 it could also mean a soft tone of voice, an undertone, a use the OED now calls rare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1486 – in music, an interval of about half a tone.^[2]
• 1782 – in art, an intermediate tint.^[6] The OED's first quotation is from 1821.^[2]
• 1818 – a soft tone of voice, an undertone.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) The smallest interval in Western classical music, a twelfth of an octave or half a tone, also called a minor second or, in American and Canadian usage, a half step: The two melodies are a semitone apart.^[9][2][3]
2. (art) A tint between the light and dark of a picture; a halftone.^[2][7]
3. (rare) A soft or gentle tone of voice; an undertone.^[2][7]

Word family

• semitonic
• semitonically
• semitonally

Related words

• tone
• semi-
• hemitone

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins