Also 6 chorde. [A 16th c. refashioning of CORD, corde, sb.1, after L. chorda, Gr. χορδή; now restricted to a few special senses. This form is alone found for sense 2 b, and is now always used in senses 2, 4; for the physiological senses (3) usage varies.
Johnson says, When it signifies a rope or string in general, it is written cord: when its primitive signification is preserved, the h is retained.]
† 1. A string or small rope. Now written CORD.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., v. 48. [They] tie a great chord about their necks.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 523. A cord that passed over the pullies. One of the assistants … pulling at the chord.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., vi. 25. A chord or fine wire with a weight attached.
2. spec. A string of a musical instrument, such as a harp. (Now only poetic; ordinarily string.)
1340–1830. [see CORD].
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 561. The sound … Was heard, of Harp and Organ, and who moovd Thir stops and chords was seen.
1762. J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., v. (1763), 66. The Chords of the Lyre were augmented gradually from four to forty.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, Introd. 92. He swept the sounding chords along.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, xvii. Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might.
fig. 1756. Gray, Progr. Poesy, note. Mr. Mason … has touched the true chords … in some of his Choruses.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Lit., Wks. (Bohn), II. 115. Only once or twice [the best poets] have struck the high chord.
b. fig. Of the emotions, feelings, etc.: the mind being viewed as a musical instrument of which these are the strings.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 4. Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch’d within us.
1830. Scott, Monast., Introd. Ep. I had touched somewhat rudely upon a chord which seldom ceased to vibrate.
1869. Lecky, Europ. Mor., I. iii. 414. It struck alike the coarsest chords of hope and fear, and the finest chords of compassion.
3. Phys. Applied to structures in an animal body resembling strings.
† a. A tendon; = CORD sb. 2 a. Obs.
1541–1601. [see CORD.]
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., I. i. 2. A chorde groweth oute of a muscle, and is compounded of synnowie matter, and of pellicles.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, IV. 44. The endes of Muscles are in tendons, or as we commonly say, chordes.
b. Applied to various structures; esp. the vocal chords, spermatic chord, spinal chord, and umbilical chord (see VOCAL, etc.). The last-named is now commonly cord, the second and third often so.
1783. P. Pott, Chirurg., Wks. II. 472. The spermatic chord.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 53. The spermatic chord was thickened.
1807. Med. Jrnl., XVII. 352. The vessels of the umbilical chord.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 74. Shell bivalve, adhering to marine bodies either directly or by means of a tendinous chord.
1866. Huxley, Phys., vii. (1869), 203. According as the vocal chords are relaxed or tightened.
1878. Bell, Gegenbaur’s Comp. Anat., 25. Chords or tracts of cells.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 51. To protect the spinal chord.
4. Math. The straight line joining the extremities of an arc.
[1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Defin., If the line goe crosse the circle, and passe beside the centre, then is it called a corde, or a stryngline.]
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, III. Introd. 81. The knowledge of chordes and arkes.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., II. (ed. 7), 102. A Chord is a right line drawne from one end of the Arch to the other end thereof.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 509. Instead of the Chords the Arcs themselves … may be taken.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xx. 146. The old wall, which was the chord of the arc.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 155. The altar was placed … on the chord of the apse.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 25. 184. Some of the clouds were drawn in straight chords across the arch of heaven.
