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Gamut
Word Nerd
Act 3,
Scene 1
Lines 62-68

An explanation of the word “gamut” in Act 3, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

Hortensio

Madam, before you touch the instrument,
To learn the order of my fingering,    
I must begin with rudiments of art,    
To teach you gamut in a briefer sort,    
More pleasant, pithy, and effectual
Than hath been taught by any of my trade,
And there it is in writing fairly drawn.    

Gamut, or gamma, is the third letter in the ancient Greek alphabet. In very early times, gamma was the symbol used to represent the first note in the musical scale. Later, it came to refer to the entire scale, and that’s how Hortensio and Bianca are using it here. Today, we use gamut in a more broader sense, to refer to the full range of anything, in expressions such as “the full gamut” of something.