parhypate

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin parhypatē, from Ancient Greek παρυπάτη (parupátē, literally “next to the hypate, next-highest”). The hypate was the "highest" in the sense of being the string on a lyre nearest the player and physically above the other strings (compare a modern guitar, where the low E string is nearest the player), but actually the lowest in pitch.

Noun

parhypate (plural parhypates)

1. (musical pitch) In Ancient Greek musical theory, the lower-pitched of the two movable notes in the nearer tetrachord on a lyre, pitched lower than the lichanos and higher than the hypate.

Usage notes

• The strings/pitches from lowest-pitched (nearest the player) to highest-pitched (farthest from the player) were the hypate, parhypate, lichanos, mese, paramese, trite, paranete and nete, grouped into two tetrachords, the nearer one stretching from hypate to mese and the farther one stretching from paramese to nete. The outer two notes in a tetrachord were fixed in pitch but the inner two notes could be tuned differently.

Anagrams

• paraphyte