Betone comes from be- (intensive) + tone, from Old French ton, from Latin tonus ('sound, tone'), from Greek tonos ('a stretching, pitch'). The historical trail runs through be- in Old English, tonus in Latin, and tonos in Ancient Greek. Morphologically, betone is transparent: it draws on be- (intensive) + tone, from Old French ton, from Latin tonus ('sound, tone'), from Greek tonos ('a stretching, pitch'). Used as a verb, betone now means "give tone or sound to; to intone (rare)", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in related forms such as tone and intone. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.