tonus

See also: tónus

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tonus (“a sound, tone”). See tone.

Noun

tonus (countable and uncountable, plural tonuses)

1. (biology) tonicity; tone

   muscular tonus

   • 1956, Personal character and cultural milieu: a collection of readings

     Dr. H. S. Sullivan, for example, is known to many for his acute understanding of the postural tonuses of his patients.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “tonus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Notus, noust, nutso, snout

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tonus. Doublet of ton, an earlier borrowing.

Noun

tonus m (plural tonus)

1. muscle tone, tonicity, tonus
2. (by extension) energy, strength

Related terms

• tonicité
• tonifier

Further reading

• “tonus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “tone”), from Proto-Hellenic *tónos, from Proto-Indo-European *tón-os, from *ten- (“stretch”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈto.nus/, [ˈt̪ɔnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈto.nus/, [ˈt̪ɔːnus]
• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) IPA^(key): /ˈto.nus/, [ˈtɔː.nus]

Noun

1. The stretching or straining of a rope.
2. (by extension) A strain; tension.
3. (figuratively) The pitch, sound or tone of something.
4. (figuratively) A crack of thunder.

See also

• tonō

Descendants

• Asturian: tonu (borrowed), truenu
• Catalan: to (borrowed), tro
• Dalmatian: tun
• Dutch: toon (borrowed)
• English: ton (through French), tone (through Old French), tune (through Old French), tonus (borrowed)
• French: ton (borrowed), tonus (borrowed)
• Friulian: ton
• Galician: ton (borrowed), trono
• Italian: tono (borrowed), tuono

• Occitan: ton (borrowed), tron
• Portuguese: tom (borrowed), trom
• Romagnol: tràun
• Romanian: ton (borrowed), tun
• Romansch: tun, tung
• Russian: то́нус (tónus) (borrowed), тон (ton) (borrowed)
• Sardinian: tronu
• Sicilian: tonu (borrowed), tronu
• Spanish: tono (borrowed), trueno

References

• “tonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tonus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• tonus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.