Talk:minor key

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Latest comment: 1 year ago by Overlordnat1 in topic RFV discussion: September 2022–February 2023
Jump to navigation Jump to search

RFV discussion: September 2022–February 2023

[edit]

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.


Noun sense 2 and adjective:

  • Noun: (idiomatic) A mood of melancholy or pathos.
  • Adjective: (idiomatic) In a restrained manner; on a small or limited scale.

Not really seeing much evidence for this as a mood, or as a way of describing behaviour.

Looks like evidence for in a minor key may be found at Google Books DCDuring (talk) 00:55, 5 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

RFV Failed Ioaxxere (talk) 22:41, 9 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

Noun sense 2 and adjective:

Likewise. These two were also added yesterday by a user that edited both pages, so I'm pretty sure these were just inferred from minor key. Theknightwho (talk) 17:14, 4 September 2022 (UTC)Reply

There could be something in this as songs in a minor key are generally considered to sound more melancholy than those in a major key and vice versa but I can’t find any support for these senses regardless. Perhaps the user who added these meanings was getting confused with low-key and the rarer high-key? Overlordnat1 (talk) 23:15, 4 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
Try looking for "in a minor key". It's a not-uncommon metaphor for having sad and melancholy overtones. That said, I'm not so sure that "minor key" by itself means the same thing, and I definitely don't think that it's an adjective. You might find "minor-key" as attributive use of the noun with the "in a" implied. As for "major key", I see a little metaphorical usage, but since the major keys are what Western music considers the default (what I like to refer to as the "unmarked category"), it's not as useful as a metaphor. Chuck Entz (talk) 23:39, 4 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
Harder to filter out other uses in in a major key, but there seems to be some support at Google Books, but there are some possible cites. I'm not sure about cites of "speak/talk in a major key". Here's an often reused sentence from:
  • 1910, Arthur Edward Phillips, The Tone System in Public Speaking and Reading:
    Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial compliment, and your heart must be frigid indeed if it do not gradually thaw!
DCDuring (talk) 00:55, 5 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
the high moments of social life on the farm … are in a decidedly minor key
— Don Murray
art in Australia … reflected English traditions in a minor key
— Bernard Smith Peppermintpatty111 (talk) 03:57, 6 September 2022 (UTC)Reply
Perhaps we should move these entries to in a minor key and in a major key then, as they don’t seem to exist on their own. We should probably move this conversation to RFM. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 12:03, 17 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

RFV Failed Ioaxxere (talk) 22:41, 9 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

I've now created entries for in a minor key and in a major key based on the deleted senses and our in a hurry entry. As it's been marked as failed for 10 days unchallenged, I'm archiving this chat. By all means challenge the new entries I've just created if they seem problematic. --Overlordnat1 (talk) 08:23, 15 February 2023 (UTC)Reply