octave

octave

English

Etymology

From Latin octavus (“eighth”). Doublet of octavo, ochava, and oitava.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒktɪv/, /ˈɒkteɪv/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑktɪv/, /ˈɑkteɪv/
• Rhymes: (UK) -ɒktɪv, (UK) -ɒkteɪv, (US) -ɑktɪv

Noun

octave (plural octaves)

1. (music) An interval of twelve semitones spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale, representing a doubling or halving in pitch frequency.

   The melody jumps up an octave at the beginning, then later drops back down an octave.

   The singer was known for astounding clarity over her entire five-octave range.

   The octave has a pitch ratio of 2:1.

2. (music) The pitch an octave higher than a given pitch.

   The bass starts on a low E, and the tenor comes in on the octave.

3. (music) A coupler on an organ which allows the organist to sound the note an octave above the note of the key pressed (cf sub-octave)
4. (poetry) A poetic stanza consisting of eight lines; usually used as one part of a sonnet.
   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, OCLC 318419127:

     With mournful melody it continued this octave.

5. (fencing) The eighth defensive position, with the sword hand held at waist height, and the tip of the sword out straight at knee level.
   • 2009, Ray Finkleman

     If they always do a lateral parry quarte, and never a semicircular octave, that gives you an opening.

6. (Christianity) The day that is one week after a feast day in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.
   • 2000, John Southworth, Shakespeare the Player:

     […] the Chamberlains' records of the companies' visits to their towns are, for the most part, not precisely dates, but merely group them together […] within their annual accounting period which normally […] ran from Michaelmas (29 September) to Michaelmas, or its octave (6 October).

   • 2014, Jennifer Gregory Miller

     It was extended to the entire Church by 1814, and then in 1913 the feast was transferred to September 15, the octave day of the Birth of Mary and the day after the Exaltation of the Cross.

7. (Christianity) An eight-day period beginning on a feast day in the Latin rite of the Catholic Church.
   • 1870, The Night Hours of the Church, trans. Rev. J. M. Neale

     Of an Octave the Office is said. or at least commemorated, (when any Sunday or Feast intervene), for eight successive days.# A small cask of wine, one eighth of a pipe.

8. (mathematics, obsolete) An octonion.
9. (signal processing) Any of a number of coherent-noise functions of differing frequency that are added together to form Perlin noise.
10. (astrology) The subjective vibration of a planet.
    • 2016: Kristin Fontana, The Beach Reporter

      Mercury then joins its higher octave and generous counterpart Jupiter early next week, and it opens gates of opportunity.

Abbreviations

• (interval): P8

Derived terms

Derived terms

• augmented octave
• diminished octave
• octaval
• perfect octave
• octave coupler

Related terms

• octavo
• oct-
• octave key

Translations

interval

Afrikaans: oktaaf Armenian: ութնյակ (hy) (utʿnyak) Bulgarian: октава f (oktava) Catalan: octava (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 八度 (zh) Czech: oktáva (cs) f Danish: oktav (da) c Dutch: octaaf (nl) Esperanto: oktavo Faroese: oktavur m Finnish: oktaavi (fi) German: Oktave (de) f Greek: οκτάβα (el) f (oktáva) Hungarian: oktáv (hu) Icelandic: áttund f Japanese: オクターブ (ja) (okutābu) Norwegian: Bokmål: oktav m Nynorsk: oktav m Polish: oktawa (pl) f Portuguese: oitava (pt) f Romanian: octavă (ro) f Russian: окта́ва (ru) f (oktáva) Scottish Gaelic: ochdad m Serbo-Croatian: oktava (sh) f Spanish: octava (es) f Swedish: oktav (sv) c

pitch octave higher than a given pitch

Catalan: octava (ca) f Portuguese: oitava (pt) f Russian: окта́ва (ru) f (oktáva) Scottish Gaelic: ochdad m Serbo-Croatian: oktava (sh) f

(fencing) the eighth defensive position

Portuguese: oitava (pt) f

day that is one week after a feast day

Catalan: octava (ca) f, vuitada f Portuguese: oitava (pt) f

eight-day period beginning on a feast day

Catalan: octava (ca) f, vuitada f Dutch: octaaf (nl)

See also

• interval
• unison
• second
• third
• fourth
• fifth
• sixth
• seventh
• Octave (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Octave in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Verb

octave (third-person singular simple present octaves, present participle octaving, simple past and past participle octaved)

1. Alternative form of octavate

Adjective

octave (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Consisting of eight; eight in number.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 228732415:

     Boccace […] is said to have invented the octave rhye

Anagrams

• avocet, vocate

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French

Noun

octave f (plural octaves)

1. octave

Descendants

• → Turkish: oktav

Further reading

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

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Interlingua

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /okˈta.ve/

Adjective

octave

1. eighth

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Latin

Numeral

octāve

1. vocative masculine singular of octāvus