gamut

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See also: Gamut

English

Etymology

1520s, original sense “lowest note of musical scale”, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma (Greek letter, corresponding to the musical note G) + ut (first solfège syllable, now replaced by do). In modern terms, “G do” – the first note of the G scale[1]. Meaning later extended to mean all the notes of a scale, and then more generally any complete range.

Pronunciation

Noun

gamut (plural gamuts)

  1. A (normally) complete range.
    • 1933?, Dorothy Parker, review of Katharine Hepburn in the Broadway play The Lake
      She delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob’s Room:
      The entire gamut of the view's changes should have been known to her; its winter aspect, spring, summer and autumn; how storms came up from the sea; how the moors shuddered and brightened as the clouds went over; she should have noted the red spot where the villas were building; and the criss-cross of lines where the allotments were cut...
  2. (music) All the notes in the musical scale.
  3. All the colours available to a device such as a monitor or printer.

Derived terms

Translations

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References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “gamut”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Dibabawon Manobo

Noun

gamut

  1. root