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  1. diesis love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. See double dagger.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In Greek music, the Pythagorean semitone, being the difference between a fourth and two major tones, represented by the ratio 256: 243. Also used of two theoretical subdivisions of a major tone, amounting respectively to about a third or a fourth of a tone, called the chromatic and the enharmonic diesis.
  2. n. In modern music, the difference between an octave and three major thirds, represented by the ratio 128: 125. Also called the modern enharmonic diesis.
  3. n. In printing, the mark ‡, commonly called double dagger. See dagger.

Wiktionary

  1. n. music Any of several intervals, smaller than a tone, in ancient Greek music
  2. n. The double dagger sign - ‡

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Mus.) A small interval, less than any in actual practice, but used in the mathematical calculation of intervals.
  2. n. (Print.) The mark ‡; -- called also double dagger. It is used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote

Etymologies

  1. Medieval Latin, semitone (which was indicated by a double dagger), from Latin, quarter tone, from Greek diesis, a letting through, from diīenai, to send through : dia-, dia- + hīenai, to send; see yē- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “He found striking analogies between a hit in quarte or tierce with the intervals of music which bear those names: when he made a feint, he cried out, "Take care of this diesis," because anciently they called the diesis a feint: and when he had made the foil fly from my hand, he would add, with a sneer, that this was a pause: in a word, I never in my life saw a more insupportable pedant.”

    The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • “A diesis is a quarter tone; hence in a semitone there are included two dieses.”

    The Ten Books on Architecture

  • “La musica è del mio amato Chopin: Fantaisie Impromptu in do diesis minore, o.p.”

    No Fat Clips!!! : None of Us are Free: Burma

  • “For we come into the world with no natural notion of a right-angled triangle, or of a diesis, or of a half tone; but we learn each of these things by a certain transmission according to art; and for this reason those who do not know them, do not think that they know them.”

    The Discourses of Epictetus

  • “They still went to see Otello at the Theatre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick's C diesis.”

    Musical Memories

  • “_Otello_ at the Théâtre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick's C diesis.”

    Musical Memories

  • “He found striking analogies between a hit in 'quarte' or 'tierce' with the intervals of music which bears those names: when he made a feint he cried out, "take care of this 'diesis'," because anciently they called the 'diesis' a feint: and when he had made the foil fly from my hand, he would add, with a sneer, that this was a pause: in a word, I never in my life saw a more insupportable pedant.”

    The Confessions of J J Rousseau

  • “_diesis_, a term used to indicate the raising of the voice in the chromatic scale.”

    Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University

  • “tierce' with the intervals of music which bears those names: when he made a feint he cried out, "take care of this 'diesis'," because anciently they called the 'diesis' a feint: and when he had made the foil fly from my hand, he would add, with a sneer, that this was a pause: in a word, I never in my life saw a more insupportable pedant.”

    The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau — Complete

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synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. double obelisk

hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. grapheme
  1. graphic symbol
  1. character

reverse dictionary (3)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. dieses
  1. double dagger
  1. diesis

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  1. cvvcvc

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tagging (1)

Words tagged ‘diesis’

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Comments

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  • ruzuzu From the examples:

    “He found striking analogies between a hit in quarte or tierce with the intervals of music which bear those names: when he made a feint, he cried out, "Take care of this diesis," because anciently they called the diesis a feint: and when he had made the foil fly from my hand, he would add, with a sneer, that this was a pause: in a word, I never in my life saw a more insupportable pedant.”

    The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
    Jan 14, 2013

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‘diesis’ has been looked up 856 times, added to 7 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 7.