apotome

Meaning

Noun

• The difference between two quantities or lengths commensurable only in power, as between 1 and the square root of 2, or between the diagonal and side of a square.
• The remaining part of a whole tone after a smaller semitone has been deducted from it; a major semitone.
• A distinct division of an insect which is divided from the other divisions by a pinch point.

Origin

• Borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀποτομή ("cutting off"). The musical sense originates from the Pythagorean tradition. The mathematical sense is attested in Euclid's Elements (Book X, proposition 73, et seq.).