Tone
/toʊn/noun
The quality of a sound or voice, or a particular shade of color or mood.
Did you know?English tone comes through French from Greek tonos, a word tied to “stretching” and “sounding high,” and it also gave us the same ancient root behind *tone*, *tune*, and *tense* in different branches of history.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ten-
“to stretch”
Ancient Greek
Greek
τόνος (tonos)
“a stretching, a tone or pitch, tension”
Late Latin
Latin
tonus
“tone, accent, musical pitch”
Old French
Old French
ton
“tone, sound, manner of speaking”
Middle English
English
tone
“sound or vocal quality”
Modern English
English
tone
“the quality of a sound, voice, or color”
Explore more surprising origins