ton | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

57 entries found.

"measure of weight," late 14c. The quantity necessary to fill a tun or cask of wine, thus identical to tun (q.v.). The spelling difference became firmly established 18c. Ton of bricks in the colloquial figurative sense of what you come down on someone like is from 1884.

ton (n.2)

"prevailing mode, style, fashionable ways," 1769, from French ton (see tone (n.)).

gigaton (n.)

by 1977, from giga- + ton.

tonne (n.)

1877, French form of ton (n.1), adopted for English use to denote a metric ton (1,000 kg.).

kiloton (n.)

also kilo-ton, 1950, from kilo- + ton (n.1).

tonify (v.)

1786, from ton (n.2) + -ify. Related: Tonified; tonifying.

megaton (n.)

unit of explosive power equal to one million tons of TNT, 1952, from mega- "million" + ton. Related: Megatonnage.

tonnage (n.)

early 15c., "tax or duty on wine imported in tuns," from ton (n.1) + -age, and from Old French tonnage "duty levied on wine in casks" (c. 1300). Meaning "carrying capacity of a ship" is from 1718.

tone (n.)

mid-14c., "musical sound or note," from Old French ton "musical sound, speech, words" (13c.) and directly from Latin tonus "a sound, tone, accent," literally "stretching" (in Medieval Latin, a term peculiar to music), from Greek tonos "vocal pitch, raising of voice, accent, key in music," originally "a stretching, tightening, taut string," which is related to teinein "to stretch" (from PIE root *ten- "to stretch").

The sense of "manner of speaking" is from c. 1600. In reference to firmness of body, from 1660s. As "prevailing state of manners" from 1735; as "style in speaking or writing which reveals attitude" from 1765. Tone-deaf is by 1880; tone-poem by 1845.

serotonin (n.)

neurotransmitting chemical, 1948, coined from sero-, combining form of serum (q.v.) + ton(ic) + chemical suffix -in (2).

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