Choir is from Proto Indo European ghoro, which came into Greek as khoros, “band of singers”. In the great Greek tragedies, the khoros gave voice to the moral and religious sentiments going on in the play. Khoros was borrowed into Latin as chorus, meaning “choir”; and from there it descended into Old French as quer, “choir of a church”. In about 1300 quer was borrowed into English as quyre. As spelling was standardized in the 16th and 17th centuries, quyre was changed to choir to reflect the old Latin spelling.

The phonosemantics of choir suggest a contained, controlled, willful energy that is expressed in a roomy, expansive, artistic manner, with great power.

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