intonate

English

Etymology

Latin intonatus, past participle of intonare (to thunder, resound).

Verb

intonate (third-person singular simple present intonates, present participle intonating, simple past and past participle intonated)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, dated) To intone or recite (words), especially emphatically or in a chanting manner.
    • 1840, Thomas De Quincey, “Theory of Greek Tragedy” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 47, No. 292, February 1840, p. 153,
      [] we have no doubt whatever that the recitation of verse on the stage was of an artificial and semi-musical character. It was undoubtedly much more sustained and intonated with a slow and measured stateliness, which, whilst harmonizing it with the other circumstances of solemnity in Greek tragedy, would bring it nearer to music.
    • 1911, Charles Clinton Nourse, Autobiography, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: for the author, Chapter 2,
      His manner on the platform and his speech were those of a drony, sing-song, intonating Episcopal minister, devoid of life and spirit.
    • 1985, David H. Rothman, The Silicon Jungle, New York: Ballantine, Chapter 10, p. 171,
      With actorlike polish he intonated through the third page []
  2. (transitive, dated) To say or speak with a certain intonation.
    • 1845, Sheridan Le Fanu, The Cock and the Anchor, Dublin: William Curry, Jun., Volume 1, Chapter 6, p. 74,
      “Is this Mr. O’Connor’s chamber?” inquired a voice of peculiar richness, intonated not unpleasingly with a certain melodious modification of the brogue []
    • 1858, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from the French and Italian Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, London: Strahan, 1871, Volume 1, “Rome,” p. 274,
      Miss Bremer talked plentifully in her strange manner—good English enough for a foreigner, but so oddly intonated and accented, that it is impossible to be sure of more than one word in ten.
    • 1882, Road Scrapings: Coaches and Coaching, London: Tinsley Brothers, Chapter 6, p. 92,
      [] an older man, attired in gray, with hair to match, was busily engaged at one end of the room packing a quantity of small cases into a larger one, and continuing to hold converse with himself by means of the monosyllable “yes,” differently intonated, at intervals of half-a-minute, “y-e-s—y-e-s.”
    • 1920, Paul Klapper, Teaching Children to Read, New York: Appleton, Chapter 8, p. 118,
      [] another child of foreign parentage intonates his English with the cadence peculiar to the language of his parents.
  3. (transitive, dated) To intone or vocalize (musical notes); to sound the tones of the musical scale; to practise the sol-fa.[1]
    • 1776, John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 3 p. 431,
      The composer so ordered it, that the king’s part should be one holding note, in a pitch proper for a Contratenor, for that was the king’s voice. Nor was he inattentive to other particulars, for he contrived his own part, which was the Bass, in such a manner, that every other note he sung was an octave to that of the king, which prevented his majesty from deviating from that single note which he was to intonate.
    • 1844, The order for morning and evening prayer, and the Litany : with plain-tune, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, London: J. Burns,Editor’s Preface,
      A comma or colon was intonated by the fall of a minor third from the key-note on the ultimate or penultimate and ultimate syllables of the clause []
  4. (obsolete) To thunder or to utter in a sonorous or thunderous voice.[2][3][4]
    • 1543, Thomas Beccon, A pleasaunt newe nosegaye full of many godly and swete floures, London: John Gough, Dedicatory epistle,
      But agaynst all such as contemne the holy scriptures & cast awaye the law of theyr LORDE God, wyllynge neither to enter them selues, nor yet suffryng other, christ intonateth and thonderethe on this manner []
    • 1663, Edward Waterhouse, Fortescutus Illustratus, London: Thomas Dicas, Chapter 1, p. 30,
      [] I hold a Prince ought not wholly to neglect Military Affairs, but verse himself in, and accustome himself to them, that he may intonate fear into Neighbours []
    • 19th century, Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, “Ode to Deity” in Poems, New York: E. Bliss and E. White et al., p. 159,
      And o’er the sphere the forked lightning flies,
      And intonating thunders shake the skies.

References

  1. John S. Adams, Adams’ New Musical Dictionary, New York: S.T. Gordon, 1865, p. 121: “Intonate. To sound the tones of the scale; to practise solmization; to read in a musical manner.”
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
  3. An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
  4. Nathan Bailey, Universal Etymological Dictionary, London: T. Cox, 1736, 2nd edition: INTONATE, to thunder or make a rumbling noise.

Italian

Verb

intonate

  1. second-person plural present indicative of intonare
  2. second-person plural imperative of intonare
  3. feminine plural of intonato

Latin

Verb

intonāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of intonō
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