intonate

Etymology

Latin intonatus, past participle of intonare (“to thunder, resound”).

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive, dated) To intone or recite (words), especially emphatically or in a chanting manner.
   […] we have no doubt whatever that the recitation of verse on the stage was of an artificial and semi-musical character. It was undoubtedly much more sustained and intonated with a slow and measured stateliness, which, whilst harmonizing it with the other circumstances of solemnity in Greek tragedy, would bring it nearer to music. 1840 February, Thomas De Quincey, “Theory of Greek Tragedy”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume 47, number 292, page 153
   His manner on the platform and his speech were those of a drony, sing-song, intonating Episcopal minister, devoid of life and spirit. 1911, Charles Clinton Nourse, chapter 2, in Autobiography, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
   With actorlike polish he intonated through the third page […] 1985, David H. Rothman, chapter 10, in The Silicon Jungle, New York: Ballantine, page 171
2. (transitive, dated) To say or speak with a certain intonation.
   “Is this Mr. O’Connor’s chamber?” inquired a voice of peculiar richness, intonated not unpleasingly with a certain melodious modification of the brogue […] 1845 Jun, Sheridan Le Fanu, chapter 6, in The Cock and the Anchor, volume 1, Dublin: William Curry, page 74
   […] an older man, attired in gray, with hair to match, was busily engaged at one end of the room packing a quantity of small cases into a larger one, and continuing to hold converse with himself by means of the monosyllable “yes,” differently intonated, at intervals of half-a-minute, “y-e-s—y-e-s.” 1882, chapter 6, in Road Scrapings: Coaches and Coaching, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 92
   […] another child of foreign parentage intonates his English with the cadence peculiar to the language of his parents. 1920, Paul Klapper, chapter 8, in Teaching Children to Read, New York: Appleton, page 118
3. (transitive, dated) To intone or vocalize (musical notes); to sound the tones of the musical scale; to practise the sol-fa.
   The composer so ordered it, that the king’s part should be one holding note, in a pitch proper for a Contratenor, for that was the king’s voice. Nor was he inattentive to other particulars, for he contrived his own part, which was the Bass, in such a manner, that every other note he sung was an octave to that of the king, which prevented his majesty from deviating from that single note which he was to intonate. 1776, John Hawkins, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, Volume 2, Book 4, Chapter 3 p. 431
   1844, The order for morning and evening prayer, and the Litany : with plain-tune, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, London: J. Burns,Editor’s Preface, A comma or colon was intonated by the fall of a minor third from the key-note on the ultimate or penultimate and ultimate syllables of the clause […]
4. (obsolete) To thunder or to utter in a sonorous or thunderous voice.
   But agaynst all such as contemne the holy scriptures & cast awaye the law of theyr LORDE God, wyllynge neither to enter them selues, nor yet suffryng other, christ intonateth and thonderethe on this manner […] 1543, Thomas Beccon, A pleasaunt newe nosegaye full of many godly and swete floures, London: John Gough, Dedicatory epistle
   19th century, Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, “Ode to Deity” in Poems, New York: E. Bliss and E. White et al., p. 159, And o’er the sphere the forked lightning flies, And intonating thunders shake the skies.