Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-POT'O-ME, or A-POT'O-MY, n. [Gr. αποτεμνω, to cut off.]

1. In mathematics, the difference between two incommensurable quantities. – Cyc.
2. In music, that portion of a tone major which remains after deducting from it an interval, less by a comma, than a semitone major. – Busby. The difference between a greater and lesser semitone, expressed by the ratio 128: 125. The Greeks supposing the greater tone could not be divided into two equal parts, called the difference, or smaller part, apotome; the other, limma. Chambers. Encyc.