The English term timbre entered music through poor translation alternatives

Evidence

As an aside on the word timbre itself, Alexander Ellis translated the German word klangfarbe as “quality of tone” which he argued is “familiar to our language”. He notes that he could have used one of the following three words: register, color, or timbre, but he chose not to because of the following common meanings that existed for these words at the time. … 1. Register—“has a distinct meaning in vocal music which must not be disturbed.” … 2. Timbre—means kettledrum, helmet, coat of arms with helmet; in French it means “postage stamp.” Ellis concluded that: “timbre is a foreign word, often mispronounced and not worth preserving.” … 3. Color—“is used at most in music as a metaphorical expression.” — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1521

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the etymology of the word timbre and why klangfarbe became ‘quality of tone’ in English.
• CANDY: The fact that ‘timbre’ also meant postage stamp in French is a light, tweetable cultural nibble.