gamut

gamut
gamut
In music, gamut properly means ‘the note G at the pitch now indicated by the lowest line of the bass staff’. (The word is formed from medieval Latin gamma (= the note G) + ut, the first of six arbitrary names forming the hexachord (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la); these were said to be taken from the initial letters of a sequence of Latin words in the office hymn for St John the Baptist's day.) It was later extended to mean ‘the whole series of notes used in medieval or modern music’, and this has given rise to the generalized meaning ‘the whole series or range or scope of anything’ which chiefly occurs in the expression run (or be put through the (full) gamut (= experience the whole range of):

• Both men were put through the full gamut of emotions —Irish News, 2003.

Beware of confusing gamut idiomatically with gauntlet: ☒ No need to run the gamut of residents parking until next January —Times, 2007.

Modern English usage. 2014.

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Synonyms:


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  • gamut — ► NOUN 1) the complete range or scope of something. 2) Music a complete scale of musical notes; the compass or range of a voice or instrument. 3) historical a scale consisting of seven overlapping hexachords, containing all the recognized notes… …   English terms dictionary

  • gamut — 1520s, originally, lowest note in the medieval musical scale, in the system of notation devised by Guido d Arezzo, contraction of M.L. gamma ut, from gamma, the Greek letter, indicating a note below A, + ut (later do), the low note on the six… …   Etymology dictionary

  • gamut — gàmut m DEFINICIJA sav raspon čega (boja, tonova i sl.) [gamut dramatičnih osjećaja od tuge do veselja] ETIMOLOGIJA srlat. gamma ut ≃ gamma: prvi ili najniži ton na srednjovjekovnoj glazbenoj ljestvici + ut: do …   Hrvatski jezični portal

  • gamut — [gam′ət] n. [ML gamma ut < gamma, the gamut, name used by GUIDO D AREZZO for the lowest note of his scale (< Gr gamma, GAMMA) + ut < L ut, that, used as a musical note, taken from a medieval song whose phrases began on successive… …   English World dictionary

  • Gamut — Gam ut, n. [F. gamme + ut the name of a musical note. F. gamme is fr. the name of the Greek letter ?, which was used by Guido d Arezzo to represent the first note of his model scale. See {Gamma}, and {Ut}.] (Mus.) The scale. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • gamut — I noun breadth, circuit, compass, complete sequence, complete series, extent, length, limit, progression, range, reach, scope, span, stretch, sweep, vastness, whole range, width II index range Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • Gamut —   [dt. »Tonleiter«, »(Farb )Skala«], im Bereich der Computergrafik derjenige Teil aller Farbtöne, den ein Ausgabegerät (Bildschirm, Drucker) darstellen kann …   Universal-Lexikon

  • gamut — *range, reach, radius, compass, sweep, scope, orbit, horizon, ken, purview …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • gamut — [n] range area, catalogue, compass, diapason, extent, field, panorama, scale, scope, series, spectrum, sweep; concepts 651,788 …   New thesaurus

  • Gamut — This article is about color gamut. For other uses, see Gamut (disambiguation). A typical CRT gamut. The grayed out horseshoe shape is the entire range of possible chromaticities, displayed in the CIE 1931 chromaticity diagram format (see below).… …   Wikipedia

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