Gamut Definition

Origin of Gamut

• Middle English the musical scale from Medieval Latin gamma ut low G gamma lowest note of the medieval scale (from Greek gamma gamma) ut first note of the lowest hexachord (after ut , first word in a Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, the initial syllables of successive lines of which were sung to the notes of an ascending scale CDEFGA: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes)

  From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

• 1520s, original sense “lowest note of musical scale”, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma (“(Greek letter, corresponding to the musical note G)”) + ut (“first solfège syllable, now replaced by do”). In modern terms, “G do” – the first note of the G scale. Meaning later extended to mean all the notes of a scale, and then more generally any complete range.

  From Wiktionary