overtone

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

over- +‎ tone, calque of German Oberton.[1][2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

overtone (plural overtones)

  1. (physics, music) A tone whose frequency is an integer multiple of another; a member of the harmonic series. [from 1867]
  2. (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".
      (Can we archive this URL?)

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

overtone (third-person singular simple present overtones, present participle overtoning, simple past and past participle overtoned)

  1. (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[edit]

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “overtone”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  2. ^ 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, […]

Further reading[edit]

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