theme

Etymology

From Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “I put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do).

noun

1. A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
   "Had not you once a beautiful daughter, named Mary?" said the stranger. "It is a heartrending question, man," said Andrew; "but certes, I had once a beloved daughter named Mary." "What became of her?" asked the stranger. Andrew shook his head, turned round, and began to move away; it was a theme that his heart could not brook. 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet
2. A recurring idea; a motif.
   1. A concept with multiple instantiations.
      variations on the theme of entrepreneurial resourcefulness
   2. Any of various colors, or color palettes, in which a design is offered; (graphical user interface) any of various skins for an app, affecting the visuals and perhaps other elements such as sound effects.
      switch to a dark theme to conserve battery power
3. (dated) An essay written for school.
   Father Dolan came in today and pandied me because I was not writing my theme. 1917, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
   […] his themes and exercises were in constant demand for what we called cogging and American students rather grandly called plagiarization. 1979, Tri-Quarterly, numbers 46-47, page 273
4. (music) The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
5. (film, television) A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
6. (grammar) The stem of a word.
7. (linguistics) thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
8. (linguistics) Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
9. (linguistics) Topic, what is generally being talked about, as opposed to rheme.
10. A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.

verb

1. (transitive) To give a theme to.
   We themed the birthday party around superheroes.
2. (computing, transitive) To apply a theme to; to change the visual appearance and/or layout of (software).