intonate

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English

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Etymology

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

Verb

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

  1. (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 […]
  2. (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.
  3. (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 […]
  4. (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.
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References

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  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.

Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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intonate

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

Etymology 2

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Participle

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intonate f pl

  1. feminine plural of intonato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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intonāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of intonō
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