Etymology: Partly < Old French ton (of voice, 13th cent. in Littré) = Provençal ton, Catalan to, Spanish ton, tono, Portuguese tom, tono, Italian tuono < Latin tonum, accusative of tonus; and partly directly < Latin tonus ‘stretching, quality of sound, tone, accent, tone in painting’, in medieval Latin especially as a term of music, < Greek τόνος ‘stretching, tension, raising of voice, pitch of voice, accent, musical mode or key, exertion of physical or mental energy’; < strong grade of verbal ablaut series τεν-, τον-, τα-, in τείνειν to stretch. In musical senses, much influenced by medieval Latin uses of tonus, and in more recent uses, largely influenced by Greek. The early phonology is far from clear, the obscurity being increased by the changing values of the spellings o , oo , ou , oy , and their ambiguity at certain periods. The normal course of French -on was to become -oun (= /-uːn/) in Middle English, and diphthongal -oun , -own (as in soun(d , noun , renown , bounty ) in modern English. An example of this appears c1407 in sense 1, where Lydgate rhymes toun , sown . But earlier than this we find tōn , tone (perhaps a more learned or technical formation) direct < Latin tonus , so well known in mediæval music, which became the prevalent form, and appears c1325 in sense 2b, rhyming with nōn ‘noon’. The normal fate of this was to become in 15–16th cent. toon (= /tuːn/); compare 1570 in sense 1, where Levens rhymes toone with boone , moone , noone , soone , etc. But here again the influence of Latin tonus appears to have prevailed, so as to make tone /toːn/ the finally accepted form. The sound of toyn , toyne , in c1460, 1521, is doubtful: -oy , -oi in Scots and northern dialect generally meant long ō . The Scots examples of tone in sense 2c are also doubtful; they may be precursors of modern Scots ( /tøn/, /tʏn/), and more properly belong to tune n. a divergent form of tone which has finally been differentiated as a distinct word. Tone, toon, and toun, might thus be viewed as separate words; but as the two latter are obsolete, and all the forms go back directly or indirectly to Latin tonus, they are here treated as one, under the current spelling, but with the quotations separated.

Etymology: Early Middle English þe tān , þe tôn , for earlier þet or þat ān , ‘the one’ (see that adj.²); the t of þet being attached to ān , ôn , when þe became the general form of the definite article. Normally used in antithesis to þe toþer , the tother , which had a similar origin: see tother pron. and adj. This usage cannot have arisen until the Old English antithesis of óðer …óðer , as in Latin alter …alter , gave place to án …oðer , as in French l'un …l'autre ; nor until þæt (þet , þat ) was usable for masculine and feminine as well as neuter, i.e. between 1200 and 1250: see one adj., n., and pron. Phrases 2, other adj. 2 Used absolutely or pronominally, the tone is found in literature down to c1600, and in many dialects to the present day; in Scots the tane is in ordinary use. But as an adjective, preceding a noun, especially before a consonant, it was reduced at an early date to þe tā , þe tô , still in Scots the tae (see to adj.); although the full the tone…the tother was also frequent, until gradually superseded in literary English by the one…the other, dialectally and colloquially also tone…tother, later sometimes written t'one…t'other. This, in the northern English dialects in which the definite article regularly appears as tĕ, tă, t', may really stand for t'one, t'other; but elsewhere, where the article is not te, t', it is perhaps rather 't one…'t other, due to the dropping of the < the tone…the tother. In both the tone and the tother, the is omitted after a possessive pronoun or case, as dialect his tone or to hand, Scots his tae hand = ‘one of his hands’. For full illustration of existing dialect use, see Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. Tone.

Etymology: < tone n.