[a. mod.F. timbre: see TIMBRE sb.1 and 2. From the sense ‘bell’; ‘small bell’ (see TIMBRE sb.2) arose that of ‘sound of a bell,’ ‘sonorous quality of any instrument or of a voice,’ and finally that of ‘character or quality of sound’ (= Ger. klangfarbe), in which the word has passed into English use, retaining its French pronunciation.]
The character or quality of a musical or vocal sound (distinct from its pitch and intensity) depending upon the particular voice or instrument producing it, and distinguishing it from sounds proceeding from other sources; caused by the proportion in which the fundamental tone is combined with the harmonics or overtones (= Ger. klangfarbe).
In first quot. only a nonce-use of the Fr. word.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, x. Your voice … has another ‘timbre’ than that hard, deep organ of Miss Mann’s.
1853. Markham, Skoda’s Auscult., 53. The voices of individuals, and the sounds of musical instruments, differ, not only in strength, clearness, and pitch, but (and particularly) in that quality also for which there is no common distinctive expression, but which is known as the tone, the character, or timbre of the voice. The timbre of the thoracic, always differs from the timbre of the oral, voice…. A strong thoracic voice partakes of the timbre of the speaking-trumpet.
1876. trans. Blaserna’s Sound, viii. 147. There are scarcely any two individuals who have exactly the same timbre of voice.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 184. [His] voice … being mild and small of timbre.
