gam⋅ut
[gam-uh
t] 
| 1. | the entire scale or range: the gamut of dramatic emotion from grief to joy. |
| 2. | Music.
|
1425–75; late ME < ML; contr. of gamma ut, equiv. to gamma, used to represent the first or lowest tone (G) in the medieval scale + ut (later do); the notes of the scale (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) being named from a Latin hymn to St. John the Baptist: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris. Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes
1. sweep, breadth, scope, reach, extent, field.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| gam·ut (gām'ət) n.
[Middle English, the musical scale, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, low G : gamma, lowest note of the medieval scale (from Greek, gamma; see gamma) + ut, first note of the lowest hexachord (after ut, first word in a Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, the initial syllables of successive lines of which were sung to the notes of an ascending scale CDEFGA: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes).] |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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| Main Entry: | gamut1 |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | the full range or compass of recognized musical notes; by extension, the compass of an instrument or voice |
| Etymology: | Medieval Latin gamma 'G' + ut 'lowest note' |
| Main Entry: | gamut2 |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | the first or lowest note of the Guidonian musical scale |
| Etymology: | Medieval Latin gamma 'G' + ut 'lowest note' |
| Main Entry: | gamut3 |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | the full range or compass of something; a range from one extreme to the other |
| Etymology: | Medieval Latin gamma 'G' + ut 'lowest note' |
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gamut
"Ut queant laxis resonare fibrisetc. Gamut came to be used for "the whole musical scale" by 1529; the figurative sense of "entire scale or range" of anything is first recorded 1626.
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum
Solve polluti labii reatum,"
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gamut
The gamut of a monitor is the set of colours it can display. There are some colours which can't be made up of a mixture of red, green and blue phosphor emissions and so can't be displayed by any monitor.
[Examples?]
(1994-11-29)
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gamut
in music, the full range of pitches in a musical system; also, the compass of a particular instrument or voice. The word originated with the medieval monk Guido of Arezzo (d. 1050) to identify his system of solmization, i.e., of using syllables to denote musical tones in a scale. Thus, to render in syllables the six tones of the hexatonic scale that prevailed, Guido started with the lowest tone recognized in medieval music theory, the second G below middle C, or gamma. For this note he selected the syllable ut from the hymn "Ut queant laxis" and for the ascending tones used the syllables re, mi, fa, sol, and la. Since Guido and his successors conceived musical theory in terms of overlapping hexachords rather than the diatonic scale, the syllable ut could represent any of the three pitches capable of sustaining the overlapping hexachords that made up the system; these were C, F, and G. While ut might vary, there was only one gamma-ut.
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