overtone
English
Etymology
over- + tone, calque of German Oberton.[1][2]
Pronunciation
Noun
overtone (plural overtones)
- (physics, music) A tone whose frequency is an integer multiple of another; a member of the harmonic series. [from 1867]
- (figuratively, often in the plural) An implicit message (in a film, book, verbal discussion or similar) perceived as overwhelming the explicit message. [from 1890]
- Antonym: undertone
- 1918–1921 (date written), D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “XX Settembre”, in Aaron’s Rod, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, published April 1922, →OCLC, page 215:
- A window opened above the shop, and a frowsty-looking man, yellow-pale, was quickly and nervously hauling in the national flag. There were shouts of derision and mockery—a great overtone of acrid derision—the flag and its owner ignominiously disappeared.
- 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- The lawyer and twice-divorced mother of three [Marine Le Pen] had presented herself as the modern face of her party, trying to strip it of unsavoury overtones after her father's [Jean-Marie Le Pen's] convictions for saying the Nazi occupation of France was not "particularly inhumane".
Derived terms
Translations
harmonic
|
implicit meaning
Verb
overtone (third-person singular simple present overtones, present participle overtoning, simple past and past participle overtoned)
- (transitive) To give an overtone to.
- 1860, The Art Journal, page 39:
- The flesh tints appear to have been darkened by being overworked; the draperies are overtoned in the same way […]
- 1977, Sol Dember, Steven A. Dember, Jeffrey H. Dember, Drawing & painting the world of animals, page 55:
- The background is now rendered by using meadow green with a stick pastel around the lower area under the lynx in an irregular fashion, and overtoning the areas closer to the animal with an irregular application of leaf green color.
- 2011, Jerrold Levinson, Music, Art, and Metaphysics:
- Can you imagine, finally, the opening of Janácek's Sinfonietta, with its richly overtoned, overlapping fanfares, performed not by brass but by a consort of oboes—even very loud ones?
References
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “overtone”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1863) Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik (in German), Braunschweig, published 1913, page 37:
- Das Ohr, von solchen Schwingungen getroffen, hört nämlich bei gehörig angestrengter Aufmerksamkeit nicht nur denjenigen Ton, dessen Tonhöhe durch die Dauer der Schwingungen in der Weise bestimmt ist, […] sondern es hört außer diesem noch eine ganze Reihe höherer Töne, welche wir die harmonischen Obertöne des Klanges nennen, […]
