demitone

From demi- +‎ tone.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛmɪtəʊn/

demitone (plural demitones)

1. (music) A semitone.
   • 1956, Roger Irving Lee, The Happy Life of a Doctor, page 183:

     Before X-ray we used to talk glibly, and sometimes I suspect without justification, of differences of demitones and half demitones in percussion of the chest and slight enlargements of the heart.

   • 2014, Ralph Kirkpatrick, ‎Meredith Kirkpatrick, Ralph Kirkpatrick, page 44:

     I am somewhat annoyed to be obliged to transpose everything for this concert because of the G. Gaveau harpsichord, which is constructed a demitone too low.

   • 2018, Carlo Severi, Capturing Imagination: A Proposal for an Anthropology of Thought, page 108:

     If we play the two lines on a piano, it becomes clear after a few repetitions (that is, once a distinction between the acoustic shape and the background is established) that what we actually hear in the foreground is a succession of fragments made up of a repeating demitone (here, B C B C B C, etc.).

2. (figurative, by extension) A tiny amount; a shade of difference; a gradation; a nuance.
   • 1896, Honoré de Balzac, The House of Nucingen, page 57:

     I would speak to you, I have seen this opulence banishing by shades, by demitones!

   • 1971, Esquire - Volume 75, page 88:

     demitone short of the snapping point, makes her suffering sympathetic — admirable even, for its seems a triumph to function in the face of crippling nerves.

   • 1981, Enid Rhodes Peschel, Four French Symbolist Poets, page 79:

     composed of demitones and shadings, while also being as faithful as possible to the many subtle gradations of his meanings and insinuations.

   • 2011, Richard Kearney, ‎Kascha Semonovitch, Phenomenologies of the Stranger, page 3:

     The three terms Other, Foreigner, and Stranger are similar at times, but they are not the same. They command precise and prudent readings. But such readings are performed at dawn or dusk, in half-light. Our inquiries are in demitones.

   • 2022, Fernán Caballero, La Gaviota:

     To begin: she arranged all her answers in a species of chromatic scale, according to her usage, and which again close the following demtones: to begin, the calm, which is called also indifference; then the supineness; and, to finish, the disdain.

3. A muted tone; a subdued manner of speaking.
   • 1871 August 15, Philippus, “Forest Scenes”, in The Oriental Sporting Magazine, volume 4, number 44, page 343:

     Some gutteral sounds, uttered in a curiously resonant demitone, were exchanged between the guardians of the rural community and the shikaree.

   • 1901, Charles Marriott, The Column, page 57:

     The voice is non-committal; level and tuned to a plein-air quality innocent of the velvet demitones I know so well.

   • 2017, Amanda Coe, Everything You Do Is Wrong:

     'I'm diabetic,' she announced in a demitone, unsure if she wanted anyone to listen.

4. (art) A color that is only partly saturated.
   • 1876, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 532:

     Dr. van Monckhoven, of Ghent, displays several remarkable enlargements printed in carbon, all distinguished by delicacy of demitone; and Mr. Edward Viles heads the scientific list with microscopi enlargments to the extent of two hundred diameters.

   • 1877, S. N. C, “The Tenth New York Water-Colour Exhibition”, in The Art Journal, volume 3, page 96:

     In the distance is a pale glint of light, but otherwise this painting is in a demitone of grey .

   • 1883 March 6, Vincent van Gogh, Letter to Theo van Gogh:

     One also can bring in demitones by means of breadcrumbs. Perhaps only the very deepest shadows can't be done very well with it, but in many cases one can use lithographic crayon then, which is also very rich in tone.

   • 1893, The World's Columbian Exposition, page 4:

     Illustrated by three plates, viz., the plan, the longitudinal and the transverse sections—and three photographs shoing the lift in operaton—the plunger, the trough and the basin—and the machinery (demitone plates).

5. (figurative) Something that is necessary to produce harmony and completeness.
   • 1947, David Saavedra, Go South Young Man, page 80:

     The middle class is the. demitone of human society, custodian of the balance, and no fair social order could exist without the cooperation of this class.

• done time, one-timed