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Word: diabolus (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1940
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Usage:

...regarded as the work of the devil. This discord is the augmented fourth (example: C and F sharp on the piano), was called the tritone because it spans three whole tones. The tritone was banned in sacred music, thus giving rise to a maxim: Mi contra fa est diabolus in musica (The tritone is the devil in music). When the sirens, beginning on a sweet major third or fifth, slip up and down into the bloodcurdling tritone, it sounds that way to Londoners...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Music: Diabolical Sirens | 9/16/1940 | See Source »

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