monochord
(ˈmɒnəkɔːd)
Forms: 5–6 monacord(e, monocorde, 5 Sc. mony-, monicord, 7– monochord.
[a. F. monocorde (from 14th c.), ad. med.L. monochordos, -on, a. Gr. µονόχορδον, neut. of µονόχορδος adj., having a single string, f. µόνο-ς mono- + χορδή string (see chord n.). Cf. manichord.]
1. A musical instrument composed of a soundboard with a single string; in the 11th c. used in singing-schools to teach the intervals of plain-song; in later use, an instrument for the mathematical determination of musical intervals.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) III. 211 As hit may be schewed in the monocorde [orig. in monochordo (v.r. monacordo)], when the wire extendede on a holowe body is distreynede diametrally. 1609 Douland Ornith. Microl. 23 A Monochord..is a long square peece of wood hollow within, with a string drawne ouer it. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. vii. 72 His mother tongue was like the dull musick of a monochord, which by study he turns into the harmony of severall instruments. 1652 Wharton tr. Rothman's Art Divining 157 That the Soule of the World..may..be as a Monochord sounding out by the threefold kinds of Creatures, Intellectuall, Celestiall, and Corruptible, at one Blast, one only Life. 1694 Holder Harmony (1731) 50 These Rations are more certainly found upon the Measures of a Monochord. 1782 Burney Hist. Mus. (1789) II. ii. 78 The method Guido pursued in teaching boys to sing was by making them practice with the monochord. 1880 Grove Dict. Mus. II. 354 Monochord..an instrument consisting of a long box of thin wood with a bridge fixed at each end, over which is stretched a wire or catgut string. 1881 Broadhouse Mus. Acoustics 101 Thompson's monochord is a method of demonstrating the pitch by adding different weights to a stretched string. |
2. A mediæval musical instrument with several strings and bridges for the production of a combination of sounds. Obs. exc. Hist.
| c 1407 Lydg. Reson & Sens. 5583 And Instrumentys..Many moo than I kan telle:..Orgnys, cytolys, monacordys. c 1450 Holland Howlat 758 The crovde, and the monycordis, the gittyrnis gay. 1497 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scotl. I. 116 Item, to Johne Hert, for bering a pare of Monicordis of þe Kingis fra Abirdene. 1885 A. J. Hipkins Pianoforte in Encycl. Brit. XIX. 65/2 We attribute the adaptation of the narrow regal keyboard to what was still called the monochord, but was now a complex of monochords over one resonance board, to the latter half of the 14th century. |
3. A harmonious combination of sound; hence fig. harmony, agreement. Now rare.
| c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 7 Musyng..how that I myght make Reason & Sensualyte in oon to acorde; but I cowde nat bryng about that monacorde. Ibid. 2016. c 1500 in Grose Antiq. Rep. (1809) IV. 408 Purenes in the margent makithe a trew monacorde. 1509 Hawes Past. Pleas. xvi. (Percy Soc.) 62 The vii. scyences in one monacorde, Eche upon other do full well depende. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. IV Introd., By the whiche you shal..bryng vs into an vnitie and monacorde. Ibid., Hen. VII 3 There lacked a wrest to the harpe to set all the strynges in a monacorde and tune. a 1550 Image Ipocr. iii. 471 in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 439 For of that monocorde The scripture doth recorde. 1644 Bulwer Chirol. 105 Their cunning mannaging of the Hand in time and tone, I have sometimes call'd the Horse-Rhetorique of Smithfield, which by calculation I have found to differ from the Fish Dialect of Billingsgate, in the monochord of motion. 1880 Swinburne Stud. Shaks. iii. (ed. 2) 210 We hear a sound of sacred and spiritual music as solemn as the central monochord of the inner main itself. 1880 ― Stud. Song 91 The sense of thy golden Great harp's monochord Was the joy in the soul of the singers that hailed thee for master and lord. |
Hence † monochordize v. [tr. F. monochordiser], intr. to perform on the monochord; monochordist, a writer who treats of the monochord. Also † monochordical a., pertaining to the science of the monochord. monochordous a. (see quot. 1856).
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais i. vii. (Rtldg.) 35 He..would nod his head, monochordizing with his fingers. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 95 To answer him in Trigonometrical, Metaphysical, and Monochordical Fustian is not to the purpose. 1834 Westm. Rev. XX. 81 The monochordists from Euclid downwards. 1856 Mayne Expos. Lex., Monochordus, having only one string: monochordous. |