intonate

English

Etymology

From Latin intonatus, past participle of intonare (“to thunder, resound”).

Verb

intonate (third-person singular simple present intonates, present participle intonating, simple past and past participle intonated)

(transitive, intransitive, dated) To intone or recite (words), especially emphatically or in a chanting manner.
- 1840 February, Thomas De Quincey, “Theory of Greek Tragedy”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume 47, number 292, page 153:
  […] we have no doubt whatever that the recitation of verse on the stage was of an artificial and semi-musical character. It was undoubtedly much more sustained and intonated with a slow and measured stateliness, which, whilst harmonizing it with the other circumstances of solemnity in Greek tragedy, would bring it nearer to music.
- 1911, Charles Clinton Nourse, chapter 2, in Autobiography‎^[2], Cedar Rapids, Iowa:
  His manner on the platform and his speech were those of a drony, sing-song, intonating Episcopal minister, devoid of life and spirit.
- 1985, David H. Rothman, chapter 10, in The Silicon Jungle‎^[3], New York: Ballantine, page 171:
  With actorlike polish he intonated through the third page […]
(transitive, dated) To say or speak with a certain intonation.
- 1845 Jun, Sheridan Le Fanu, chapter 6, in The Cock and the Anchor‎^[4], volume 1, Dublin: William Curry, page 74:
  “Is this Mr. O’Connor’s chamber?” inquired a voice of peculiar richness, intonated not unpleasingly with a certain melodious modification of the brogue […]
- 1858 January 6 – 1862 August 15 (date written), Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rome”, in Passages from the French and Italian Note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, volume I, London: Strahan & Co., […], published 1871, →OCLC, page 274:
  Miss Bremer talked plentifully in her strange manner—good English enough for a foreigner, but so oddly intonated and accented, that it is impossible to be sure of more than one word in ten.
- 1882, chapter 6, in Road Scrapings: Coaches and Coaching‎^[5], London: Tinsley Brothers, page 92:
  […] an older man, attired in gray, with hair to match, was busily engaged at one end of the room packing a quantity of small cases into a larger one, and continuing to hold converse with himself by means of the monosyllable “yes,” differently intonated, at intervals of half-a-minute, “y-e-s—y-e-s.”
- 1920, Paul Klapper, chapter 8, in Teaching Children to Read‎^[6], New York: Appleton, page 118:
  […] another child of foreign parentage intonates his English with the cadence peculiar to the language of his parents.
(transitive, dated) To intone or vocalize (musical notes); to sound the tones of the musical scale; to practise the sol-fa.^[1]
- 1776, John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music‎^[7], Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 3 p. 431:
  The composer so ordered it, that the king’s part should be one holding note, in a pitch proper for a Contratenor, for that was the king’s voice. Nor was he inattentive to other particulars, for he contrived his own part, which was the Bass, in such a manner, that every other note he sung was an octave to that of the king, which prevented his majesty from deviating from that single note which he was to intonate.
- 1844, The order for morning and evening prayer, and the Litany : with plain-tune, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, London: J. Burns,Editor’s Preface,^[8]
  A comma or colon was intonated by the fall of a minor third from the key-note on the ultimate or penultimate and ultimate syllables of the clause […]
(obsolete) To thunder or to utter in a sonorous or thunderous voice.^[2]^[3]^[4]
- 1543, Thomas Beccon, A pleasaunt newe nosegaye full of many godly and swete floures‎^[9], London: John Gough, Dedicatory epistle:
  But agaynst all such as contemne the holy scriptures & cast awaye the law of theyr LORDE God, wyllynge neither to enter them selues, nor yet suffryng other, christ intonateth and thonderethe on this manner […]
- 1663, Edward Waterhous [i.e., Edward Waterhouse], chapter I, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Roycroft for Thomas Dicas […], →OCLC, page 30:
  […] I hold a Prince ought not vvholly to neglect Military Affairs, but verſe himſelf in, and accuſtome himſelf to them, that he may intonate fear into Neighbours, […]
- 19th century, Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, “Ode to Deity” in Poems, New York: E. Bliss and E. White et al., p. 159,^[10]
  And o’er the sphere the forked lightning flies,
  
  And intonating thunders shake the skies.

Related terms

intonation

References

^ John S. Adams, Adams’ New Musical Dictionary, New York: S.T. Gordon, 1865, p. 121: “Intonate. To sound the tones of the scale; to practise solmization; to read in a musical manner.”^[1]
^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
^ An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
^ Nathan Bailey, Universal Etymological Dictionary, London: T. Cox, 1736, 2nd edition: INTONATE, to thunder or make a rumbling noise.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

intonate

inflection of intonare:
1. second-person plural present indicative
2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

intonate f pl

feminine plural of intonato

Anagrams

a tentoni

Latin

Verb

intonāte

second-person plural present active imperative of intonō

[1] John S. Adams, Adams’ New Musical Dictionary, New York: S.T. Gordon, 1865, p. 121: “Intonate. To sound the tones of the scale; to practise solmization; to read in a musical manner.”^[1]

[2] Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

[3] An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.

[4] Nathan Bailey, Universal Etymological Dictionary, London: T. Cox, 1736, 2nd edition: INTONATE, to thunder or make a rumbling noise.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]