Unlike many of the words on this blog, I do know what this word means. It means something like 'the whole kit and caboodle' the range, the spectrum. But it was only just now when I was checking to make sure that I was spelling it right--I wasn't--that I came across its own interesting origins. So here's the interesting testish part. Where do you think the word gamut comes from?
The way I had it spelled in my mind--apparently 'gamit', the way I first typed it-- it sounded like one of those Anglo-Saxon words that have mysteriously disappeared from our discourse: "I searched high and low, Squire, but the whole gamit of them hares has just disappeared." When it turned out to be, 'gamut' though, it started sounding a bit Germanic: "Wo ist der Gamut, Herr Schoenfeld?" "Der Gamut ist Kaputt, Herr Mann!"
Neither of these, however, was really on the right track. 'Gamut' is a Middle English word, but a much more ethereal one than I was thinking. It refers to a musical scale. The original word 'gamut' is taken from the Medieval Latin musical term 'gamma', or low G, which was the first note in the lowest hexachord (don't ask) and 'ut' which is the first note of the Medieval Latin scale. Don't quote me, but it seems like 'gamma' is our G (though it looks like its pilfered from the Greeks) and 'ut' is our 'doh', as in 'doh, re, mi..." 'Ut' apparently comes from being the first word in a Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, which ascended as it was sung in a scale like way. "Ut queant laxis resonare..." Well, you get the picture. And if you don't, I'm afraid that quoting more of the hymn isn't really going to help you.
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Whoever would have thought that the tough, gummy-sounding GAMUT had such a mellifluous (spellcheck?) origin?
ReplyDeleteI've known gamut for a long time, it's an useful word when writing about the wide range of cultures, customs and languages that make up my country, India.
Of course I knew that- we still have gamma (meaning exactly gamut) in Italian.
ReplyDeleteMarco, of course you did. That doesn't even surprise me.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how the word was kept or changed in the two different languages. Why Middle English felt the need to make a combination word where the Italian didn't. As Sucharita says, it hardly makes the word more mellifluous (and yes, the spelling is right, because I checked).
It's funny, too, that we can know this word and use it correctly and even fairly frequently, but not necessarily know what it means in itself. Because we don't have to. I know that somewhere in the back of my mind, 'run the gamut' has some kind of pairing with 'run the gauntlet', even though I would never mix them up in a sentence and they mean nothing like the same thing. It's simply about some similarity of sound between words that are, though familiar, not really related to everyday things or activities.
Seana,
ReplyDeleteWow, my Latin and Greek are very rusty. I knew the word, but not the origin. Very cool!
Though some would insist on "running the gantlet" rather than "running the gauntlet." How abotu that for the subject for a future post here?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
That's certainly a possibility. I'm also open to guest posters if you want to, uh, run with that one...
ReplyDeleteI am overcome by lassitude at the thought of the work that post would require.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the history of how gantlet became gauntlet. I assume the shift is due to a mistake, along the lines chaise longue being erroneously written and pronounced chaise lounge, but I could well be wrong. The two could just be alternate forms of the same word.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
No problem, Peter. I may take it up at a future date myself.
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