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Webster 1913 Edition

Consonant

Con′so-nant

,
Adj.
[L.
consonans
,
-antis
; p. pr. of
consonare
to sound at the same time, agree;
con-
+
sonare
to sound: cf. F.
consonnant
. See
Sound
to make a noise.]
1.
Having agreement; congruous; consistent; according; – usually followed by with or to.
Each one pretends that his opinion . . . is
consonant
to the words there used.
Bp. Beveridge.
That where much is given there shall be much required is a thing
consonant
with natural equity.
Dr. H. More.
2.
Having like sounds.
Consonant
words and syllables.
Howell.
3.
(Mus.)
harmonizing together; accordant;
as,
consonant
tones,
consonant
chords
.
4.
Of or pertaining to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.
No Russian whose dissonant
consonant
name
Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.
T. Moore.

Con′so-nant

,
Noun.
[L.
consonans
,
-antis
.]
An articulate sound which in utterance is usually combined and sounded with an open sound called a vowel; a member of the spoken alphabet other than a vowel; also, a letter or character representing such a sound.
Consonants are divided into various classes, as mutes, spirants, sibilants, nasals, semivowels, etc. All of them are sounds uttered through a closer position of the organs than that of a vowel proper, although the most open of them, as the semivowels and nasals, are capable of being used as if vowels, and forming syllables with other closer consonants, as in the English feeble
(-b’l)
, taken
(-k’n)
. All the consonants excepting the mutes may be indefinitely, prolonged in utterance without the help of a vowel, and even the mutes may be produced with an aspirate instead of a vocal explosion. Vowels and consonants may be regarded as the two poles in the scale of sounds produced by gradual approximation of the organ, of speech from the most open to the closest positions, the vowel being more open, the consonant closer; but there is a territory between them where the sounds produced partake of the qualities of both.
☞ “A consonant is the result of audible friction, squeezing, or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth (or occasionally of the throath.) The main distinction between vowels and consonants is, that while in the former the mouth configuration merely modifies the vocalized breath, which is therefore an essential element of the vowels, in consonants the narrowing or stopping of the oral passage is the foundation of the sound, and the state of the glottis is something secondary.”
H. Sweet.

Webster 1828 Edition

Consonant

CONSONANT

,
Adj.
1.
Agreeing; according; congruous; consistent; followed generally by to; sometimes by with; as, this rule is consonant to scripture and reason.
2.
In music, composed of consonances; as consonant intervals.

CONSONANT

,
Noun.
A letter, so named because it is considered as being sounded only in connection with a vowel. But some consonants have no sound, even when united with a vowel, and others have a very imperfect sound. The consonants are better called articulations, as they are the names given to the several closings or junctions of the organs of speech, which precede and follow the openings of the organs, with which the vowels are uttered. These closings are perfect, and wholly intercept the voice, as in the syllables ek, ep, et; or imperfect, and admitting some slight sound, as in em,
en.
Hence some articulations are called mutes, and others, semi-vowels. The consonants begin or end syllables, and their use is to determine the manner of beginning or ending the vocal sounds. These closings or configurations of the organs being various, serve to diversify the syllables, as in uttering ba, da, pa, or ab, ad, ap; and although b and p may be considered as representing no sounds at all, yet they so modify the utterance of ab, ap, or ba, pa, that the slight difference between these articulations may be perceived as far as the human voice can be distinctly heard.

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