The English word timbre was once judged a foreign, mispronounced borrowing not worth preserving.

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

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Rich etymology of ‘timbre’ — klangfarbe, register, color — and why Ellis settled on ‘quality of tone’.
• CANDY: Timbre used to mean kettledrum or postage stamp in French is a fun cocktail fact about musical terminology.
• XREF: Connects to Helmholtz’s original research and the tristimulus/Grey multidimensional analyses referenced in this chapter.

Related

• The English term timbre entered music through poor translation alternatives (similarity 0.94)
• The English word timbre derives from a contested translation of German klangfarbe. (similarity 0.90)
• The word timbre derives from klangfarbe meaning color of tone (similarity 0.89)
• Color analogies naturally describe timbre, whose acoustic basis is overtones (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• The English word timbre derives from a contested translation of German klangfarbe. #expands (0.85) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 1497