Melodies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A sequence of musical sounds that is often tuneful and memorable
2. A combination of notes played in a way that produces a pleasant auditory experience
3. Arrangements of notes creating a musical phrase that can be easily recognised and recalled

Etymology: "Melodies" is the plural of "melody", which came into English in Middle English through Old French "melodie" and ultimately from Late Latin "melodia". The Latin word was itself borrowed from Ancient Greek "melōidía", meaning "singing" or "chanting", built from "mélos", a musical phrase or limb, and "aoidḗ", song. The second element is a contracted form of "ōidḗ", the same root that gives "ode", so a melody is, at its core, a sung phrase that carries a poem's rhythm in its line. The Greek compound is worth a closer look. "Mélos" originally meant a limb or member of the body, and the musical sense grew from the idea of a phrase as a distinct part of a larger whole, much as a limb is part of a body. Combining it with "aoidḗ" produced a word for a unit of sung sound that could be picked out and remembered, which is the sense the word still carries today.

Synonyms: tunes, songs, hymns, air, dittys