tonus

Borrowed from Latin tonus (“strain, tension”). Doublet of tone.

tonus (countable and uncountable, plural tonuses or toni)

1. (biology) tonicity; tone

   muscular tonus

   • 1942, Myrtle Gladys Scott, Analysis of Human Motion: A Textbook in Kinesiology, page 51:

     The amount of stretch possible increases with the range in the joint and decreases with the cross section of the muscle and the amount of tonus or contraction in these antagonists .

   • 1956, Personal character and cultural milieu: a collection of readings:

     Dr. H. S. Sullivan, for example, is known to many for his acute understanding of the postural tonuses of his patients.

   • 1964, Vasillĭ Vasilʹevich Parin, ‎F. Z. Myerson, An Outline of the Clinical Physiology of the Circulation, page 210:

     At the same time, from the vasomotor point of view the artrioles are an extremely active part of the vascular bed , and every important change in the peripheral resistance is traceable to a corresponding change in the tonus of the arterioles .

2. A tonal system or mode used in Gregorian chant.
   • 2021, Irene Caiazzo, ‎Constantinos Macris, ‎Aurélien Robert, Brill's Companion to the Reception of Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, page 69:

     Aurelian associates antiphons and toni of the plain chant, so that the octave-based Pythagorean scale is exemlified by means of the liturgical chant, with the outstanding consequence that church music becomes the sounding representation of the harmony of the spherese and of human beings.

• Notus, Tuson, noust, nouts, nutso, snout

Latin tonus

• IPA^(key): /ˈtonus/, [ˈt̪o̞nus̠]
• Rhymes: -onus
• Hyphenation^(key): to‧nus

tonus

1. (medicine) Synonym of jänteys

Borrowed from Latin tonus. Doublet of ton, an earlier borrowing.

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.nys/

• Audio:

  (file)

tonus m (plural tonus)

1. muscle tone, tonicity, tonus
2. (by extension) energy, strength

• tonicité
• tonifier

• “tonus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Ancient Greek τόνος (tónos, “tone”), from Proto-Hellenic *tónos, from Proto-Indo-European *tón-os, from *ten- (“stretch”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈto.nus/, [ˈt̪ɔnʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈto.nus/, [ˈt̪ɔːnus]

tonus m (genitive tonī); second declension

1. The stretching or straining of a rope.
2. (by extension) A strain; tension.
3. (figuratively) The pitch, sound or tone of something.
4. (figuratively) A crack of thunder.

Second-declension noun.

• tonō

• “tonus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tonus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• tonus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Borrowed from French tonus.

tonus n (plural tonusuri)

1. muscle tone
2. tonus