timbre
Pluraltimbres
- 1The quality of a sound that distinguishes it from another of the same pitch and volume.
Like recognizing two singers covering the same song purely by the color of their voices.
Each instrument has a distinct timbre, even when several play identical pitches together.
The recording beautifully captured the warm timbre of the old cello.
Similartone, color, quality, resonance, sound
Note
A word that came into English from French and reaches back to the Greek túmpanon, "drum," which makes it a cousin of tympanum, timpani and timbal. It belongs to voices as readily as to instruments: in H. P. Lovecraft's The Whisperer in Darkness (1931), something in the timbre of a whisper disturbs the narrator. Keep it apart from the perceived-pitch meaning, which concerns how high a sound seems rather than its color.
- 2The pitch of a sound as the ear perceives it, described in relation to its absolute pitch.
Trained musicians can judge the timbre of a tone against its measured frequency.
Divers breathing a helium mix speak with an oddly high timbre, though their vocal cords vibrate at the usual rate.
Similarpitch
Note
Here the word sits awkwardly beside the tone-quality meaning, which is defined as independent of pitch. This one is pitch, as the ear judges it. The helium voice shows it: breathing helium makes a speaker sound higher, and sulfur hexafluoride makes the voice sound lower. Where context leaves the meaning open, writing perceived pitch instead spares the reader from guessing which sense is meant.
- 3In heraldry, the crest set upon the helmet that stands above a coat of arms.
The herald described the timbre crowning the helm above the shield.
Above the coat of arms sat an elaborate timbre shaped like a falcon.
Similarcrest
Note
A herald's term, and an uncommon one. Crest is the ordinary word, and the two can stand side by side, as when Levillain and O'Malley's The Papacy (2002) describes a pavilion used "as a timbre or crest." The usage is old: a 1492 confirmation of arms grants "to his timbre vpon his healme, an Elephants head." The word names what sits on the helm, not the helm or the shield.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from French timbre, which ultimately derives from the Ancient Greek τύμπανον (túmpanon, “drum”). It is a doublet of tympanum, timpani, timbal, and tymbal.