μονότονος

Forms

μονότονος (monótonos) m or f (neuter μονότονον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos, “alone, single”) + τόνος (tónos, “tension; pitch, tone”), “of a single tone”.^[1][2][3] LSJ connects it with the musical sense of τόνος (tónos), the pitch of a note.^[4] Babiniotis gives its first meaning as “made of a single musical tone”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in LSJ is the adverb μονοτόνως (monotónōs) in the treatise On the Sublime ascribed to Longinus (probably 1st century AD), of speech that keeps to one tone.^[4][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In music the word meant “of one tone”, and so, more generally, uniform or monotonous; the grammarians and rhetoricians used it of a uniform style.^[4][8] Clement of Alexandria uses it of an even, uniform tension.^[2][6] Figuratively it could describe a person who does not change course: Ptolemy's astrological Tetrabiblos uses it for “obstinate”, and the astrologer Hephaestion (4th–5th century AD) for “steady”.^[4][7] Hesychius glosses it as “being alone”, perhaps confusing it with a word for single combat.^[9][4]

Modern Greek μονότονος (monótonos) is a learned revival of the Hellenistic word, whose present sense “monotonous, dull” follows French monotone.^[10][11] It still has the literal sense “without variety of sound” besides the figurative one, “tedious”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1st century AD (probably) – The treatise On the Sublime uses the adverb μονοτόνως (monotónōs) of a uniform, monotonous delivery.^[4][6][7]
• 2nd century AD – Ptolemy uses it figuratively for “obstinate”.^[4][7]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Clement of Alexandria uses it of uniform tension.^[2][6][7]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius explains it as “being alone”.^[9][4]
• Modern Greek – The learned μονότονος (monótonos) means “monotonous”, a sense modelled on French.^[10][11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a single tone (in music or speech); uniform, monotonous.^[4][8][13]
2. (figurative) Obstinate; steady.^[4][13]

Word family

• μονοτονία (monotoníā)

Related words

• μόνος (mónos)
• τόνος (tónos)
• English monotone

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
12. ^ Πολυλεξικό, in the encyclopedia Επιστήμη και Ζωή, Athens
13. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli