halftone en · NOUN
Etymology
From half- + tone.
Meanings
-
Synonym of semitone, half the interval between two notes on a scale.
That animals utter musical notes is familiar to every one, as we may daily hear in the singing of birds. It is a more remarkable fact that an ape, one of the Gibbons, produces an exact octave of musical sounds, ascending and descending the scale by half-tones; so that this monkey “alone of brute mammals may be said to sing.”
1872, Charles Darwin, “Means of Expression in Animals”, in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 87:
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A picture made by using the process of half-toning.
Before leaving New York a handsome booklet had been prepared and printed. The brochure contained the names of the commissioners, their public records, halftone portraits and a carefully prepared statement of the objects of the expedition.
1917, Joseph G. Butler Jr., A Journey Through France in War Time:
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An intermediate or middle tone in a painting, engraving, photograph, etc.; a middle tint, neither very dark nor very light.
“No, I cannot enjoy it,” Cecilia said to Mrs. Devereux; “I don't mind the grey light; cloud and water, and half-tones of colour, are homely English and pleasant, and that opal where the sun should be has a suggestiveness richer than sunlight.[…]”
1876, George Meredith, Beauchamp’s Career […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 18:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| half-tone | alternative | lexicographic | |
| halftones | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Synonyms
half the interval between two notes on a scale · semitone
Translations (6)
fi rasterivedos (picture made by half-toning) · de Rasterdruck (picture made by half-toning) · fi rasterikuva (picture made by half-toning) · pl odbitka półtonowa (picture made by half-toning) · pt meio-tom (picture made by half-toning) · cs půltón (picture made by half-toning)