middle tenor

1 definition found

middle tenor - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Tenor \Ten"or\, n. [L., from tenere to hold; hence, properly, a
     holding on in a continued course: cf. F. teneur. See
     Tenable, and cf. Tenor a kind of voice.]
     1. A state of holding on in a continuous course; manner of
        continuity; constant mode; general tendency; course;
        career.
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              Along the cool sequestered vale of life
              They kept the noiseless tenor of their away. --Gray.
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     2. That course of thought which holds on through a discourse;
        the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent;
        meaning; understanding.
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              When it [the bond] is paid according to the tenor.
                                                    --Shak.
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              Does not the whole tenor of the divine law
              positively require humility and meekness to all men?
                                                    --Spart.
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     3. Stamp; character; nature.
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              This success would look like chance, if it were
              perpetual, and always of the same tenor. --Dryden.
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     4. (Law) An exact copy of a writing, set forth in the words
        and figures of it. It differs from purport, which is only
        the substance or general import of the instrument.
        --Bouvier.
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     5. [F. t['e]nor, L. tenor, properly, a holding; -- so called
        because the tenor was the voice which took and held the
        principal part, the plain song, air, or tune, to which the
        other voices supplied a harmony above and below: cf. It.
        tenore.] (Mus.)
        (a) The higher of the two kinds of voices usually
            belonging to adult males; hence, the part in the
            harmony adapted to this voice; the second of the four
            parts in the scale of sounds, reckoning from the base,
            and originally the air, to which the other parts were
            auxillary.
        (b) A person who sings the tenor, or the instrument that
            play it.
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     Old Tenor, New Tenor, Middle Tenor, different
        descriptions of paper money, issued at different periods,
        by the American colonial governments in the last century.
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