"Tent," "Tensive," "Tenacious," Thin," "TONE"

       And then suppose you are contemplating a thing that is stretched or capable of being stretched, a string.  Greek tonos “string, hence sound, pitch” derives from another form of the Indo-European ten-.

       And thus to English.  We have “tonus” and “tone” in the physiological sense:  “the normal state of elastic tension or partial contraction in resting muscles” (AHD).  In music or speech, varied pitches and timbres can be produced by stretched strings or vocal “cords” and thence “tone,” “baritone,” “monotone,” and so on.

       And tone gets into “extended” aesthetic meanings in art: “the general effect of the combination of light and shade or of colour in a painting, etc.” (OED) and in literature:  mood, style, attitude, even an author’s way of reaching out to an audience or reader to indicate how to take the literary work; these are matters of "tone."