Etymologically
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tenor

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈtɛnə(ɹ)/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tenour, also tenor,[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman tenur and tenour, tenor (“substance, contents, meaning; tenor part in music”),[6][7][3][8] now teneur,[3][6] from Latin tenor (“course, uninterrupted course; substance, import of a law”),[3][6][9][10] originally "a holding on",[3][8][5] from teneō (“to hold”).[3][9][10][4] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the verb to Proto-Indo-European *ten-.[11] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from 1136–37, already meant the general sense or purport of a letter or document, and also the lowest string of an instrument.[12] The musical term was in 14th–15th-century French a tenor part, voice or singer, and its later forms, like the English word in all its senses, were brought into line with Italian tenore and with the same word in Medieval Latin, where it meant the chief melody.[9][3][13][4] From the 13th to the 18th century the word was often confused with tenure.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The general meaning or drift of something said or written: probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, according to Barnhart,[8] and about 1300 in Etymonline;[3] the OED's first quotation is from Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon (before 1387).[9][14]

Semantic evolution

Ayto explains the first sense as "that which is held to", hence a continuous course, and then the general import of a speech or text.[10] In law and administration the tenor of a document was its exact wording, and after about 1450 also an exact copy of it.[9][5] From 1398 the word was also used for continuance or duration (obsolete by 1694) and for the continuous course or progress of something, as in Gray's line "They kept the noiseless tenour of their way".[9][14][13] The musical sense comes from medieval polyphony, in which the tenor part carried the sustained melody, the canto fermo, and so "held" it;[3][15][16][17] the word passed from that part to the voice that sang it, recorded in English from 1388,[9][14][3] to a singer with that voice (from the late 15th century),[3][14] and to instruments of that range, such as the tenor bell (1541), the viola (1785) and the tenor saxophone (1876).[14] As an adjective, "of the tenor", it is recorded from 1522.[5][14][3] Later technical senses are the face value of a banknote in the American colonies (1740), the time a bill of exchange runs before payment (1866), and, in I. A. Richards's analysis of metaphor (1936), the underlying idea as opposed to the vehicle.[9][14][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – tenour, general sense or drift, in Kyng Alisaunder.[8][3]
  • before 1387 – the general meaning of a document or speech, in Trevisa.[9]
  • 1388 – the adult male voice between bass and alto.[9][14]
  • 1398 – continuous course or progress; also duration (obsolete by 1694).[9][14]
  • c. 1450 – an exact copy of a document.[9]
  • c. 1475 – a singer with a tenor voice.[14][3]
  • 1522 – adjective, of the tenor part or pitch.[5][14]
  • 1541 – the tenor bell.[14]
  • 1740 – the face value of a colonial banknote.[9][14]
  • 1866 – the time a bill runs before payment.[9][14]
  • 1893 – verb, to tenor it, to sing tenor.[9][14]
  • 1936 – the subject of a metaphor, in I. A. Richards.[9][14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The general drift, meaning or character of something spoken or written; its purport: The tenor of the debate grew hostile.[5][18][9]
  2. The settled course or character of something: the even tenor of village life.[5][18][9]
  3. (music) The highest ordinary adult male singing voice, between baritone and alto; a singer with this voice, or the part written for it.[18][5][9]
  4. (music) An instrument of the size and range between alto and baritone or bass, such as a saxophone or recorder.[18][14]
  5. (music) In early polyphony, the part that carried the main melody or cantus firmus.[18][3]
  6. (law) An exact copy of a document; its exact wording.[5][9]
  7. In the analysis of metaphor, the idea or subject meant, as opposed to the image that expresses it.[5][9]
  8. (finance) The time a bill of exchange runs before it is due.[9][18]

Adjective

  1. Of, for or having the range of a tenor: a tenor aria.[5][18][9]

Word family

  • tenorless
  • tenorist
  • tenor clef
  • tenor horn

Usage notes

A dialect tenor for a tenon (from before 1485) is a variant of that word, not a use of this one;[9][7] in Scotland, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire a tenor-saw was a tenon saw.[19]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)