Etymology

paranete

P3A1R1A1N1E1T1E1

Today it means: In Ancient Greek musical theory, the higher-pitched of the two movable notes in the farther tetrachord on a lyre, pitched higher than the trite and lower than the nete. Full definition →

Latin paranētē ← Ancient Greek παρανήτη
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromπαρανήτη
  2. Latin · borrowed fromparanētē
  3. English todayparanete

Unadapted borrowing from Latin paranētē, from Ancient Greek παρανήτη (paranḗtē, literally “next to the lowest [string]”). The nete was "lowest" in the sense of being the farthest from the player and physically below the other strings, but was the highest in pitch. Compare the high E string in a modern guitar, which is farthest from the player.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.