Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In Greek music, the Pythagorean semitone, being the difference between a fourth and two major tones, represented by the ratio 256: 243.
- noun In modern music, the difference between an octave and three major thirds, represented by the ratio 128: 125. Also called the modern enharmonic diesis.
- noun In printing, the mark ‡, commonly called
double dagger . Seedagger .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) A small interval, less than any in actual practice, but used in the mathematical calculation of intervals.
- noun (Print.) The mark ‡; -- called also
double dagger . It is used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun music Any of several
intervals , smaller than atone , in ancient Greekmusic - noun The
double dagger sign -‡
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a character used in printing to indicate a cross reference or footnote
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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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.
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A diesis is a quarter tone; hence in a semitone there are included two dieses.
The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio
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La musica è del mio amato Chopin: Fantaisie Impromptu in do diesis minore, o.p.
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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.
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They still went to see Otello at the Theatre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick's C diesis.
Musical Memories Saint-Saens, Camille 1919
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_Otello_ at the Théâtre-Italien, but that was to hear Tamberlick's C diesis.
Musical Memories Camille Saint-Sa��ns 1878
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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 Rousseau, Jean Jacques 1896
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_diesis_, a term used to indicate the raising of the voice in the chromatic scale.
Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University Edward MacDowell 1884
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'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 — Volume 05 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1745
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'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 Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1745
ruzuzu commented on the word diesis
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
January 14, 2013