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τετρακτύς. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
τετρακτύς, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
τετρακτύς in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Ancient Greek
Etymology
τετράς (tetrás) + -τύς (-tús)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /te.trak.ty̌ːs/ → /te.trakˈtys/ → /te.trakˈtis/
Noun
τετρᾰκτῡ́ς • (tetraktū́s) f (genitive τετρᾰκτῠ́ος); third declension
- Pythagorean name for:
- the sum of the first four numbers, i.e. 10 (= 1+2+3+4)
- The four terms (6:8:9:12) of the proportion corresponding to the chief musical intervals; also their sum +1 (= 36); the sum of the first 8 numbers. (6:12::1:2::diapason, 6:9::2:3::diapente, 6:8::3:4::diatessaron; 1:2, 2:3, 3:4 being the ratios of neighboring terms in the sum of the previous definition. 8:9::tonus as a bonus. A diatonic scale may be derived from this; semitonus can be derived to be 243:256 by fitting tonus as many times as possible into a diatessaron and finding out what ratio remains. Tonus times tonus times semitonus equals diatessaron: do–re–mi–fa (6:8). Fa to sol is tonus (8:9). Sol to do’ is another diatessaron: sol–la–si–do’ = tonus times tonus times semitonus = do–re–mi–fa transposed to sol (9:12). 384:432:486:512:576:648:729:786::do:re:mi:fa:sol:la:si:do’.)
Inflection
Descendants
Further reading