chroma

Forms

chrōma n (genitive chrōmatis or chrōmatos); third declension^[1][2][3] Medieval spellings include croma and chroema.^[4][5] Writers on music also treat it as a feminine of the first declension.^[6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour, complexion”).^[1][2][5] The Greek noun first meant the surface of the body or the skin, then the colour of the skin and colour in general;^[7][5] Greek also used it for certain modifications of the diatonic scale, and Etymonline notes that the reason for this musical use is not clear.^[7] Beekes, as Etymonline reports, considers it of uncertain origin; it is sometimes connected with Proto-Indo-European *gʰrēu- (“to rub, grind”).^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius, writing on harmony, names three genera of melody: the one the Greeks call harmonia, then chroma, then the diatonic.^[1][8][5] He says that the chromatic genus, with its subtle skill and close-set notes, gives a sweeter pleasure, and that in it two semitones are set in order and the third interval is of three semitones.^[8][6]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a technical word of music theory.^[8][6] Martianus Capella explains the name: as what lies between white and black is called colour, so this genus is called chroma because it lies between the other two.^[8] Boethius instead explains it from surfaces that pass into another colour when they change.^[8]

Late Latin also had the Greek sense of colour.^[8][3] Porphyrio's commentary on Horace glosses a line of the Epistles with solitum iacēre sub sōle et chroma facere, “used to lying in the sun and getting a tan”.^{[8][3][9][10]} Glossaries explain it as colour, and some as humours.^[8][11]

In Medieval Latin it meant colour,^[4][11] and in poems a melody or song, perhaps under the influence of crusma.^[4] Music theory used it for several intervals (four fifths of a tone, the minor third, a semitone outside the diatonic scale) and, in mensural notation, for a note worth half a semiminim, a quaver.^[6][11] English took chromatic about 1600 from the derived chrōmaticus,^[7] and chroma in 1889 for the intensity of a colour.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius names it as the second of three genera of melody.^[1][8][5]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella explains the name by colour, which lies between white and black.^[8][5]
• c. 1600 – English chromatic is taken from the derived adjective.^[7]
• 1889 – English chroma is used of the intensity of a colour.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) The chromatic genus or scale, which divides the tetrachord into two semitones and an interval of three semitones.^[1][2][8][6]
2. (Late Latin) A tan, skin browned by the sun.^{[8][3][9][10]}
3. (Medieval Latin) Colour.^[4][11]
4. (Medieval Latin) A melody, song.^[4]
5. (Medieval Latin, music) Any of several intervals (four fifths of a tone, the minor third, a semitone outside the diatonic scale); in mensural notation, a note worth half a semiminim, a quaver.^[6][11]

Word family

• chrōmaticus
• chrōmaticē

Related words

• English chroma
• English chromatic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi (1992–), Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften; online ed. Wörterbuchnetz
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press