diapason

See also: diàpașon and diapasón

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin diapason, from Ancient Greek διαπασῶν (diapasôn), that is διά (diá, “through”) + πασῶν (pasôn, “all”) (χορδῶν (khordôn, “notes”)), “through all (notes)”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /daɪəˈpeɪzən/, /daɪəˈpeɪsən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪzən, -eɪsən

Noun

diapason (plural diapasons)

1. (music) The musical octave.
   • 1818, Iamblichus, translated by Thomas Taylor, Life of Pythagoras‎^[1], page 328:

     2 to 1, which is a duple ratio, forms the [symphony] diapason

2. (by extension, literary) The range or scope of something, especially of notes in a scale, or of a particular musical instrument.

   Synonyms: range, scope

   • 1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter XV, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 397:

     The glories and the beauties of form, color, and sound unite in the Grand Canyon—forms unrivaled even by the mountains, colors that vie with sunsets, and sounds that span the diapason from tempest to tinkling raindrop, from cataract to bubbling fountain.

   • 1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961:

     the piano curving like a conch, corollas giving out diapasons of light […]

3. (music) A tonal grouping of the flue pipes of a pipe organ.
4. A harmonious outpouring of sound.
   • 1645, John Milton, “At a Solemn Musick”, in Poems of Mr John Milton, Both English and Latin:

     That we on Earth with undiscording voice
     May rightly answer that melodious noise;
     As once we did, till disproportion'd sin
     Jarr'd against natures chime, and with harsh din
     Broke the fair musick that all creatures made
     To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd
     In perfect Diapason, whilst they stood
     In first obedience, and their state of good.

   • 1961, Graham Greene, A Burnt-Out Case:

     he could hear nothing except the rattle of the crickets and the swelling diapason of the frogs […]

Derived terms

• diapasonal
• disdiapason
• open diapason
• semidiapason
• tridiapason

 

Translations

the range or scope of something, especially of notes in a scale, or of a particular musical instrument

• Russian: диапазо́н (ru) (diapazón)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дијапазон m

  Roman: dijapazon (sh) m

• Ukrainian: діапазо́н (uk) m (diapazón)

Further reading

• Octave on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Flue pipe on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Organ stop on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

diapason (tuning fork)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin diapason, from Ancient Greek διαπασῶν (diapasôn), that is διά (diá, “through”) + πασῶν (pasôn, “all”) (χορδῶν (khordôn, “notes”)), “through all (notes)”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dja.pa.zɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

diapason m (countable and uncountable, plural diapasons)

1. (music, uncountable) range, diapason
2. (countable) a tuning fork

   Synonym: accordoir

Descendants

• → Portuguese: diapasão

Further reading

• “diapason”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

diapason m (invariable)

1. (music) tuning fork

   Synonym: corista

2. diapason
3. (figurative, by extension) tone (of a voice, conversation, etc.)

Derived terms

• dare il diapason

Further reading

• diapason on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it
• diapason in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• anapsido, spaiando