solmization

Forms

• solmisation (UK)

Etymology

It is borrowed from French solmisation,^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} from solmiser (“to sing to the sol-fa syllables”),^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} formed from sol and mi, two of the syllables that name the notes of the scale.^[2][1][4][9] These come from Medieval Latin sol and mi,^[3][5] words sung on these notes in a medieval hymn to St John the Baptist: Latin solve (“purge”) and mira (“wonders”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or practice of singing to the sol-fa syllables: 1730, as solmisation, in A Short Treatise on Harmony.^[1][4][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives an earlier first date, 1672,^[3] and Dictionary.com has 1720–30.^[8]

Semantic evolution

English already had sol-fa for the syllables, from the 1540s, and as a verb from the 1560s.^[2] According to Collins, it refers to the system descended from the 11th-century hexachord of Guido d'Arezzo, which gives the syllables ut (or do), re, mi, fa, sol, la and si (or ti) either to the degrees of the scale of C, in the fixed system, or to the major scale in any key, in the movable system.^[6] Barnhart found the spelling with z first in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1879).^[4] Collins lists both spellings.^[6] The Shorter Oxford also has the verb solmizate.^[9]

Timeline

• 1730 – solmisation, the practice of sol-fa singing.^[1][4][2]
• 1879 – the spelling solmization.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) The act, practice or system of naming the notes of a scale by syllables instead of letters; sol-fa or solfège.^[3][6][1]

Related words

• sol
• mi
• sol-fa
• gamut
• solfeggio

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press