modulation

Etymology

This comes from Late Middle English modulacion, modulacioun ("act of making music or singing; harmony; melody, song"), from Middle French modulation (modern French modulation), and directly from its source Latin modulātiō ("regular or rhythmical measure, modulation; inflection of tone; (architecture) calculation of measurements from a standard unit; (Late Latin) act of making music or singing; melody, song"), from modulātus ("modulated") plus -iō (a suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs). Modulātus is the perfect participle of modulor ("to beat time; to make music or sing; to measure; etc."), from modulus ("rhythmical measure, interval; rhythm; small interval or measure, etc.") plus -or (a suffix forming certain inflections of verbs); modulus itself comes from modus ("measure; method; etc.", ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *med-, "to measure; etc.") plus -ulus, a diminutive suffix. On the surface, it can be analysed as modulat(e) plus -ion, a suffix denoting an action or process, or its result.