beat

→ Pennsylvania German: biede

From Middle English beten, from Old English bēatan (“to beat, pound, strike, lash, dash, thrust, hurt, injure”), from Proto-West Germanic *bautan, from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to push, strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to hit, strike”).
Compare Old Irish fo·botha (“he threatened”), Latin confutō (“I strike down”), fūstis (“stick, club”), Albanian bahe (“sling”), Lithuanian baudžiù, Old Armenian բութ (butʻ)).

march to the beat of a different drummer

(music) A pulse on the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit. Thus a beat is the basic time unit of a piece.

(music) The rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians.


sing

en-verb

sing (third-person singular simple present sings, present participle singing, simple past sang, past participle sung or (archaic) sungen)

sings (present singular third-person)
singing (participle present)
sang (past)
sung (participle past)
sungen (archaic participle past)
sing (infinitive)

From Middle English singen, from Old English singan, from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, from Proto-Germanic *singwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ-. Cognate with German singen (“to sing”) and Danish synge (“to sing”).

Recorded singing from a person.

listen/core

Recorded singing from a person.

ombox/core

Recorded singing from a person.

ombox

Recorded singing from a person.

mbox

Recorded singing from a person.

"I really want to sing in the school choir," said Vera.

(intransitive) To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice.

sing

to produce harmonious sounds with one’s voice

သီချင်းဆို (sihkyang:hcui, literally “say a song”)

to sing somebody to sleep

The air sings in passing through a crevice.

a singing kettle

O'er his head the flying spear / Sang innocent, and spent its force in air.

1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book XXII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

(intransitive) To make a small, shrill sound.

‘We sung them two real good. We never give Louis Beck no place to find rest from his torment.’

2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 343:

(Australia) In traditional Aboriginal culture, to direct a supernatural influence on (a person or thing), usually malign; to curse.


gravity

en-noun

gravity (countable and uncountable, plural gravities)

Learned borrowing from Latin gravitās (“weight”) (compare French gravité), from gravis (“heavy”). Doublet of gravitas. First attested in the 16th century.


hot

en-adj

hot (comparative hotter, superlative hottest)

hotter (comparative)
hottest (superlative)

chilled

antonym(s) of “having a high temperature”

freezing

antonym(s) of “feeling the sensation of heat”

From Middle English hot, hat, from Old English hāt, from Proto-Germanic *haitaz (“hot”), from Proto-Indo-European *keHy- (“hot; to heat”). Cognate with Scots hate, hait (“hot”), North Frisian hiet (“hot”), Saterland Frisian heet (“hot”), West Frisian hjit (“hot”).

der

(acoustics) Loud, producing a strong electric signal for the amplifier or other sound equipment.


ad lib

Abbreviation of ad libitum, borrowed from New Latin ad libitum.

(music, chiefly hip-hop) Improvised vocals added after the main vocals have been recorded which serve to emphasize the rhythm or fill the lyrical bar line.


ad lib

en-verb

ad lib (third-person singular simple present ad libs, present participle ad libbing, simple past and past participle ad libbed)

ad libs (present singular third-person)
ad libbing (participle present)
ad libbed (participle past)
ad libbed (past)

(music, chiefly hip hop, intransitive) To perform ad libs; to improvise lyrics after the main lyrics have been recorded.

(music, chiefly hip hop, transitive) To perform (lyrics) as ad libs.


touch

en-noun

touch (countable and uncountable, plural touches)

From Middle English touchen, tochen, from Old French tochier (“to touch”) (whence Modern French toucher; compare French doublet toquer (“to offend, bother, harass”)), from Vulgar Latin *tuccō (“to knock, strike, offend”), from Frankish *tukkōn (“to knock, strike, touch”), from Proto-Germanic *tukkōną (“to tug, grab, grasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull, lead”). Displaced native Middle English rinen, from Old English hrīnan (whence Modern English rine).
cognates
Cognate with Old High German zochhōn, zuhhōn (“to grasp, take, seize, snatch”) (whence German zucken (“to jerk, flinch”)), German Low German tucken, tocken (“to fidget, twitch, pull up, entice, throb, knock, repeatedly tap”), Middle Dutch tocken, tucken (“to touch, entice”) (whence Dutch tokkelen (“to strum, pluck”)), Old English tucian, tūcian (“to disturb, mistreat”) (whence Modern English tuck). Compare also Old High German tokkōn, tockōn (“to abut, collide”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian cek (“to touch”), Old Church Slavonic тъкнѫти (tŭknǫti). More at tuck, take.

der

a heavy touch, or a light touch

(music) The particular or characteristic mode of action, or the resistance of the keys of an instrument to the fingers.


activity

en-noun

activity (countable and uncountable, plural activities)

From Middle French activité, from Latin activitas. Equivalent to active + -ity.

(physics) The number of radioactive decays per unit time. Unit for it: becquerel or curie


song

song (countable and uncountable, plural songs)

→ Polish: song

From Middle English song, sang, from Old English sang, from Proto-West Germanic *sangu, from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz (“singing, song”), from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ- (“to sing”). Cognate with Scots sang, song (“singing, song”), Saterland Frisian Song (“song”), West Frisian sang (“song”), Dutch zang (“song”), Low German sang (“song”), German Sang (“singing, song”), Swedish sång (“song”), Norwegian Bokmål sang (“song”), Norwegian Nynorsk song (“song”), Icelandic söngur (“song”), Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice, oracle”). More at sing.

cog

Thomas listened to his favorite song on the radio yesterday.

The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

1568, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:

In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.

1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266:

He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights,[…], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(music) A musical composition with lyrics for voice or voices, performed by singing.


translate

en-verb

translate (third-person singular simple present translates, present participle translating, simple past and past participle translated)

translates (present singular third-person)
translating (participle present)
translated (participle past)
translated (past)
translate (infinitive)

[ˈtʃɹʷɛ̃nzɫæe̯ʔ(t)]

From Middle English translaten (“to transport, translate, transform”), from Anglo-Norman translater, from Latin trānslātus, perfect passive participle of trānsferō (“to transport, carry across, translate”).
In this sense, displaced Old English wendan (“to translate,” also the word for “to turn” and “to change”).

traduir

to change (something) from one form or medium to another

транслирам

to move (something) from one place or position to another

If one were to chart the form of most film songs, translated into conventional terms used in Western music, one would likely see a structure that has an introduction and two or three stanzas: [...]

2015, Jayson Beaster-Jones, “Film Songs at the End of the Colonial Era and the Emergence of Filmi Style”, in Bollywood Sounds: The Cosmopolitan Mediations of Hindi Film Music, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

Senses relating to the change of information, etc., from one form to another.

(transitive) To change (something) from one form or medium to another.

(transitive, music) To rearrange (a song or music) in one genre into another.

sovittaa

to rearrange (a song or music) in one genre into another


re

From Glover's solmization, from Middle English re (“second degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian re in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin resonāre (“made to resound”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

(music) A syllable used in solfège to represent the second note of a major scale.


flaxen

From Middle English flaxen, flexon, flexin, from Old English fleaxen (“of flax; flaxen”), equivalent to flax + -en (“made of”). Compare Dutch vlassen.

flaxen:

The couple and their children have flaxen hair.

(of hair) A pale yellow brown as of dried flax; blonde.


blonde

Alternative form of blond (person of fair hair). (Used especially of a woman. See the usage notes in the entry blond.)

blond

blonde:

Alternative form of blond (pale golden brown color).

Coordinate term: redhead

Most [camera crews] carry two blondes and three redheads or their equivalents. Blondes are 2000 watt lamps traditionally with yellow heads (or shells) used to light fairly large areas — also referred to as 2Ks — and redheads smaller 800 watt lamps traditionally with red shells to light faces.

2012, Colin Hart, Television Program Making, page 63:

(film, television, theater) A kind of 2,000-watt lamp.


blonde

en-verb

blonde (third-person singular simple present blondes, present participle blonding, simple past and past participle blonded)

blondes (present singular third-person)
blonding (participle present)
blonded (participle past)
blonded (past)

Most women who blonde their hair today have been doing it for several years.

1964, LIFE, volume 56, number 10, page 25:

(especially of a woman) Alternative form of blond


honey

en-noun

honey (usually uncountable, plural honeys or (archaic) honies)

→ Japanese: ハニー (hanī)

→⇒ Jarai: ia hơni

→ Marshallese: ōne

Sranan Tongo: oni

Tok Pisin: hani

From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare West Frisian hunich, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare Swedish honung), from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂onk-o-s, from *kn̥h₂ónks.
Cognate with Middle Welsh canecon (“gold”), Latin canicae pl (“bran”), Tocharian B kronkśe (“bee”), Albanian qengjë (“beehive”), Ancient Greek κνῆκος (knêkos, “safflower”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.

cog

dip me in honey and throw me to the lesbians

don't get your honey where you make your money

you attract more flies with honey than vinegar

you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar

you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

you catch more flies with honey than vinegar

you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar

honey:

A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow colour, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.


honey

en-adj

honey (comparative honeyer or honier, superlative honeyest or honiest)

honeyer (comparative)
honier (comparative)
honeyest (superlative)
honiest (superlative)

Then I looked close at the scalp he stroked, which was of the silkiest blonde. For a moment I was sure it come from Olga’s dear head, and reckoned also he had little Gus’s fine skull-cover someplace among his filthy effects, the stinking old savage, living out his life of murder, rapine, and squalor, and I almost knifed him before I collected myself and realized the hair was honeyer than my Swedish wife’s.

1964, Thomas Berger, “My Indian Wife”, in Little Big Man, New York, N.Y.: The Dial Press, →LCCN, page 214:

Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow colour, like most types of honey.


honey

en-verb

honey (third-person singular simple present honeys, present participle honeying, simple past and past participle honeyed)

honeys (present singular third-person)
honeying (participle present)
honeyed (participle past)
honeyed (past)

[O]ne / Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men / But honeying at the whisper of a lord; / And one the Master, as a rogue in grain / Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.

1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 6:

(intransitive) To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.


burnt

en-adj

burnt (comparative more burnt, superlative most burnt)

more burnt (comparative)
most burnt (superlative)

better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick

The toast was too burnt to eat.


voice

→ Russian: войс (vojs) (slang, from "voice message")

From Middle English voice, voys, vois, borrowed from Anglo-Norman voiz, voys, voice, Old French vois, voiz (Modern French voix), from Latin vōcem, accusative form of vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European *wṓkʷs, root noun from *wekʷ- (“to utter, speak”). Cognate with Sanskrit वाच् (vāc), Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps), Persian آواز (âvâz). Displaced native Middle English steven (“voice”) (from Old English stefn (see steven)), Old English hlēoþor, and Old English woþ. Broadly overtook Old English reord. Compare advocate, advowson, avouch, convoke, epic, vocal, vouch, vowel. Doublet of vox.

the voice of the people, the voice of God

The human voice is the oldest musical instrument in history.

She has a pleasant voice.

His low voice allowed him to become a bass in the choir.

Her voice was euer ſoft,
Gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 309, column 1:

And joyn thy voice unto the Angel Quire,

1629, John Milton, “On the Morning of Christs Nativity”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 2:

Villa chief executive Paul Faulkner had backed manager Houllier during the week and asked for the fans to get behind their team as they looked to steer themselves away from the relegation zone.
To that end, the home supporters were in good voice to begin with, but it was Newcastle who started the game in the ascendancy, with Barton putting a diving header over the top from Jose Enrique's cross.

2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport:

Sound uttered by the mouth, especially by human beings in speech or song; sound thus uttered considered as possessing some special quality or character

The theme of this piece constantly migrates between the three voice parts.

(music) In harmony, an independent vocal or instrumental part in a piece of composition.

stemme

music: independent vocal or instrumental part


lied

Borrowed from German Lied (“song”). Doublet of leed, which was inherited by Old English lēoþ (“poem”).

(music) An art song, usually sung solo in German and accompanied on the piano.


poop

en-noun

poop (countable and uncountable, plural poops)

Russian: пуп (pup)

Uncertain, possibly from Middle English poupen (“to make a gulping sound while drinking, blow on a horn, toot”). Compare Dutch poepen (“to defecate”), German Low German pupen (“to fart; break wind”). Also representing poo pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end.

cog

Two minutes passed - five - seven - ten. "Poop! Poop!" Everyone knew that whistle, and a mighty cheer went up as the Queen's train glided into the station.

2001, Rev. W. Awdry, Thomas the tank engine collection : a unique collection of stories from the railway series - p. 157 - Egmont Books, Limited, Aug 15, 2001:

The sound of a steam engine's whistle, typically low-pitched.


inflect

en-verb

inflect (third-person singular simple present inflects, present participle inflecting, simple past and past participle inflected)

inflects (present singular third-person)
inflecting (participle present)
inflected (participle past)
inflected (past)

From Latin īnflectō, from in- (“in”) + flectō (“I bend”).

The actress has a great skill of being able to inflect her voice to any situation.

(transitive, music) To change the tone or pitch of the voice when speaking or singing.


cry

cry (third-person singular simple present cries, present participle crying, simple past and past participle cried)

cries (present singular third-person)
crying (participle present)
cried (participle past)
cried (past)
cry (infinitive)

The verb is from Middle English crien (13th century), from Old French crier, from Vulgar Latin *crītāre, generally thought to derive from Classical Latin quirītāre (Proto-West Germanic *krītan has also been suggested as a source). The noun corresponds to Middle English cry, crie, from Old French cri, a deverbal of crier.
etymology note
Middle English crien eventually displaced native Middle English galen (“to cry out”) (from Old English galan), Middle English greden (“to cry out”) (from Old English grǣdan), Middle English yermen (“to bellow, mourn, lament”) (from Old English ġierman), Middle English hooen, hoen (“to cry out”) (from Old Norse hóa), Middle English remen (“to cry, shout”) (from Old English hrīeman, compare Old English hrēam (“noise, outcry, lamentation, alarm”)), Middle English greten, graten (“to weep, cry, lament”) (from Old English grǣtan and Old Norse gráta). More at greet, regret.
Already in the 13th century, the meaning was extended to include the sense "to shed tears" (natively weep); cry used in this sense had mostly replaced weep by the 16th century.

cog

That sad movie always makes me cry.

This heart-breaking moment gets me crying.

That made me cried when I been traumatized about suicidal thoughts.

If somebody cries in a bathtub they saw a ghost.

- Emerl: “There’s nothing worse than making a girl cry!” That’s what Sonic said...

2003, Sonic Team, Sonic Battle, Sega, published 2003, Game Boy Advance, level/area: Cream’s Story:

And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 27:46:

(transitive, intransitive) To shout, scream, yell.

the young ravens which cry

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 147:9:

In a cowslip's bell I lie / There I couch when owls do cry.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

(intransitive) To utter inarticulate sounds, as animals do.


cry

I heard a cry from afar.


heel

From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, from Proto-West Germanic *hą̄hilō, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (“heel, hock”), equivalent to hock + -le. More at hock.
Compare North Frisian haiel, West Frisian hyl, Dutch hiel, German Low German Hiel, Danish and Norwegian hæl, Swedish häl.

couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel

(music) The thickening of the neck of a stringed instrument where it attaches to the body.


vocal

en-adj

vocal (comparative more vocal, superlative most vocal)

more vocal (comparative)
most vocal (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-vocal.wav

Late Middle English vocal, borrowed from Latin vōcālis (“uttering a voice, sounding, speaking”), from vōx (“a voice, sound, tone”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of vowel and vocalis. Compare Old French vocal.

af

Of, pertaining to, or resembling the human voice or speech.

(music) Relating to, composed or arranged for, or sung by the human voice.


vocal

Best cuts: "The Evil Dude," "Kung Fu, Too!" "Mama Love," "New Orleans" (with a punchy vocal by Teresa Brewer).

1975, Billboard, volume 87, number 24, page 50:

(music) A part of a piece of music that is sung.

(acting) A musical performance involving singing.


so

Shortened from sol, to make it an open syllable for uniformity with the rest of the scale, from Glover's solmization, from Middle English sol (“fifth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian sol in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin solve (“wash away”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

inh

(music) A syllable used in solfège to represent the fifth note of a major scale.


bind

From Middle English binden, from Old English bindan, from Proto-West Germanic *bindan, from Proto-Germanic *bindaną (compare West Frisian bine, Dutch binden, Low German binnen, German binden, Danish binde), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéndʰ-e-ti, from *bʰendʰ- (“to tie”).
Compare Welsh benn (“cart”), Latin offendīx (“knot, band”), Lithuanian beñdras (“partner”), Albanian bind (“to convince, to awe, to spell”), Ancient Greek πεῖσμα (peîsma, “cable, rope”), Persian بستن (bastan, “to bind”), Sanskrit बन्धति (bándhati). Doublet of bandana.

cog

(music) A ligature or tie for grouping notes.


bend

en-verb

bend (third-person singular simple present bends, present participle bending, simple past and past participle bent or (archaic) bended)

bends (present singular third-person)
bending (participle present)
bent (participle past)
bent (past)
bended (archaic participle past)
bended (archaic past)

From Middle English benden, from Old English bendan (“to bind or bend (a bow), fetter, restrain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bandijan, from Proto-Germanic *bandijaną (“to bend”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind, tie”). Cognate with Middle High German benden (“to fetter”), Danish bænde (“to bend”), Norwegian bende (“to bend”), Faroese benda (“to bend, inflect”), Icelandic benda (“to bend”). Related to band, bond.

der

You should bend the G slightly sharp in the next measure.

(transitive, music) To smoothly change the pitch of a note.


bend

(music) A glissando, or glide between one pitch and another.


raspberry

→ Japanese: ラズベリー (razuberī)

From earlier raspis berry, possibly from raspise (a sweet rose-colored wine), from Anglo-Latin vinum raspeys, of uncertain origin. Possibly related to rasp (“coarse, rough”), of Germanic origin.

عُلَّيْق m (ʕullayq) (which also means blackberry)

Any of many other (but not all) species in the genus Rubus.

The juicy aggregate fruit of these plants.


raspberry

en-adj

raspberry (comparative raspberrier, superlative raspberriest)

raspberrier (comparative)
raspberriest (superlative)

She wore a raspberry beret / The kind you find in a second hand store

1985, Prince (lyrics and music), “Raspberry Beret”, in Around the World in a Day, performed by Prince and the Revolution:


raspberry

en-verb

raspberry (third-person singular simple present raspberries, present participle raspberrying, simple past and past participle raspberried)

raspberries (present singular third-person)
raspberrying (participle present)
raspberried (participle past)
raspberried (past)

[…] she stuck burrs in my bed and lead me through the nettle-patch when we were raspberrying, because she knew I did n't know nettles; […]

1903, M. E. Waller, A Daughter of the Rich, Little, Brown, and Company, published 1903, page 137:

"Owen and she went raspberrying in the woods back of her farm," answered Anne. "They won't be back before supper time—if then."

1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 37, in Anne's House of Dreams:

[…] Mrs. Thrifty was picking pie cherries, two boys were raspberrying, and the fourth son, as I recall it, blueberrying.

1944, Cornelius Weygandt, The Heart of New Hampshire: Things Held Dear by Folks of the Old Stocks, G. P. Putnam's Sons, published 1944, page 129:

My mother told my sister Sally and me that if we were good little girls we might go raspberrying up on the mountains when the raspberries were ripe.

1976, Emily Ward, The Way Things Were: An Autobiography of Emily Ward, Newport Press (1976), page 4

In strawberry time she had seen individual bears grazing in the meadows along the bluff, and later, while raspberrying, she heard one gobbling fruit and snorting on the other side of the bush.

1988, Charles McCarry, The Bride of the Wilderness, MysteriousPress.com, published 2011, →ISBN:


raspberry

Cockney rhyming slang, from raspberry tart = fart (though "raspberry" is rarely used for a fart, merely a noise which imitates it). Compare raspberry ripple = cripple.

Of the announcement, Osborne said: "They have spent a hundred billion pounds of public money and they've got a massive raspberry from everyone as far as I can see. As a PR exercise, it's been an object lesson in how not to make a government announcement."

2021 December 1, “Network News: Integrated Rail Plan: Osborne predicts HS2 eastern leg will return”, in RAIL, number 945, page 8:

(colloquial) A noise intended to imitate the passing of flatulence, made by blowing air out of the mouth while the tongue is protruding from and pressed against the lips, or by blowing air through the lips while they are pressed firmly together or against skin (often a form of tickling) used humorously or to express derision.


rainbow

Sranan Tongo: alenbo

From Middle English reynbowe, raynbowe, from Old English reġnboga (“rainbow”), from Proto-West Germanic *regnabogō, from Proto-Germanic *regnabugô (“rainbow”), equivalent to rain + bow (“arch”). Cognate with West Frisian reinbôge (“rainbow”), Dutch regenboog (“rainbow”), German Regenbogen (“rainbow”), Danish regnbue (“rainbow”), Swedish regnbåge (“rainbow”), Icelandic regnbogi (“rainbow”).

en:any spectrum of colors with similar appearance as rainbow in sky

Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.


lead

en-noun

lead (countable and uncountable, plural leads)

From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”).
Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).

der

(music) In a barbershop quartet, the person who sings the melody, usually the second tenor

(music) The announcement by one voice part of a theme to be repeated by the other parts.

(music) A mark or a short passage in one voice part, as of a canon, serving as a cue for the entrance of others.


whistler

From Middle English whisteler, whistlar, whystelare, from Old English hwistlere (“a player on a flute; a piper”), equivalent to whistle + -er.

inh

Someone or something that whistles, or who plays a whistle as a musical instrument.

Any of several passerine birds of the genera Pachycephala and Coracornis, of Australasia and the western Pacific.

A goldeneye (any of certain ducks of genus Bucephala).


dig

From Middle English diggen (“to dig”), alteration of Old English dīcian (“to dig a ditch, to mound up earth”) (compare Old English dīcere (“digger”)) from dīc, dīċ (“dike, ditch”) from Proto-Germanic *dīkaz, *dīkiją (“pool, puddle”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeygʷ- (“to stab, dig”). Additionally, Middle English diggen may derive from an unrecorded suffixed variant, *dīcgian. Akin to Danish dige (“to dig, raise a dike”), Swedish dika (“to dig ditches”). Related to Middle French diguer (“to dig”), from Old French dikier, itself a borrowing of the same Germanic root (from Middle Dutch dijc). More at ditch, dike.

der

a £1 charity shop dig

(music, slang) A rare or interesting vinyl record bought second-hand.


flesh

en-noun

flesh (usually uncountable, plural fleshes)

From Middle English flesh, flesch, flæsch, from Old English flǣsċ, from Proto-West Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Germanic *flaiski, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”).

der

2018 May 8, Raj Patel, Jason W Moore, “How the chicken nugget became the true symbol of our era”, in The Guardian:
Chicken is already the most popular meat in the US, and is projected to be the planet’s favourite flesh by 2020.

For all flesh is as grasse, and all the glory of man as the flowre of grasse: the grasse withereth, and the flowre thereof falleth away.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Peter 1:24:

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that yee cannot doe the things that yee would.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Galatians 5:17:

1929 January, Bassett Morgan (Grace Jones), Bimini, first published in Weird Tales, reprinted 1949, in Avon Fantasy Reader, Issue 10,
But death had no gift for me, no power to free me from flesh.

(religion) The mortal body of a human being, contrasted with the spirit or soul.


sound

en-noun

sound (countable and uncountable, plural sounds)

→ German: Sound

→ Japanese: サウンド (saundo)

→ Swedish: sound

* Noun: from Middle English sownde, alteration of soun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sun, soun, Old French son, from accusative of Latin sonus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound, resound”).
* Verb: from Middle English sownden, sounen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suner, sounder, Old French soner (modern sonner), from Latin sonō.
* The hypercorrect -d appears in the fifteenth century. (Compare dialectal drownd, gownd for the same development.)
Displaced native Middle English swei, from Old English swēġ, from Proto-Germanic *swōgiz.

der

He looks like he's got it, maybe. Listen to those kids!/There's no maybe about it. That's it, that's the sound.

1954, Valentine Davies et al., The Glenn Miller Story:

(music) A distinctive style and sonority of a particular musician, orchestra etc.


sound

en-verb

sound (third-person singular simple present sounds, present participle sounding, simple past and past participle sounded)

sounds (present singular third-person)
sounding (participle present)
sounded (participle past)
sounded (past)


neck

From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak (“neck”), Saterland Frisian Näkke (“neck”), West Frisian nekke (“neck”), Dutch nek (“neck”), German Low German Nack (“neck”), German Nacken (“nape of the neck”), Danish nakke (“neck”), Swedish nacke (“nape of the neck”), Icelandic hnakki (“neck”), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape”). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc (“hook, penis”), Welsh cnwch (“joint, knob”), Latvian knaūķis (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).

(music) The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted


axe

From Middle English ax, axe, ex, from Old English æx, from Proto-West Germanic *akusi, from Proto-Germanic *akwisī, probably from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂egʷsih₂ (“axe”), from *h₂eḱ- (“sharp, pointed”). Compare German Axt, Dutch aks, Danish økse, Icelandic öxi, and also Latin ascia.

(slang, music) A gigging musician's particular instrument, especially a guitar in rock music or a saxophone in jazz.


overdraw

overdraw (third-person singular simple present overdraws, present participle overdrawing, simple past overdrew, past participle overdrawn)

overdraws (present singular third-person)
overdrawing (participle present)
overdrew (past)
overdrawn (participle past)

(music) To draw the air in through a harmonica while adjusting the mouth so that the note goes up a half tone.


blond

en-adj

blond (comparative blonder or more blond, superlative blondest or most blond)

blonder (comparative)
more blond (comparative)
blondest (superlative)
most blond (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French blond m, from Old French blond, blont, blund, (> Medieval Latin blondus), from Frankish *blund (“a mixed color between golden and light-brown”), from Proto-Germanic *blundaz (“mixed, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlendʰ- (“to become turbid, see badly, go blind”). Compare Old English blondenfeax (“grey-haired”), Old English blandan (“to mix”). More at blend.
Alternative etymology connects Frankish *blund to Proto-Germanic *blundaz (“blond”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥ndʰ-, *bʰlendʰ- (“blond, red-haired”). If so, then it would be cognate with Sanskrit ब्रध्न (bradhná, “ruddy, pale red, yellowish”).

cog

“She was so blond, that where it said 'sign here,' she wrote Gemini.” He had given her only the weakest of smiles.

2010, Mariah Stewart, Moon Dance, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:

Katelyn's laugh was nearly uncontrollable. “You are so blond sometimes,” she said with a long laughing sigh, but then calmed herself down.

2002, Michael Jay, The Altherian Code, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 118:

Alternative spelling of blonde (“stupid”)


distance

en-noun

distance (countable and uncountable, plural distances)

From Middle English distance, distaunce, destance (“disagreement, dispute; discrimination; armed conflict; hostility; trouble; space between two points; time interval”), from Anglo-Norman distance, distaunce, destance, Middle French distance, and Old French destance, destaunce, distaunce (“debate; difference, distinction; discord, quarrel; dispute; space between two points; time interval”) (modern French distance), and directly from their etymon Latin distantia (“difference, diversity; distance, remoteness; space between two points”) (whence also Late Latin distantia (“disagreement; discrepancy; gap, opening; time interval”)), from distāns (“being distant; standing apart”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Distāns is the present active participle of distō (“to be distant; to stand apart; to differ”), from dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, asunder; in two’) + stō (“to stand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Middle Dutch distancie, distantie (modern Dutch distantie); Dutch afstand (“distance”, literally “off-stand, off-stance”)
* German Distanz; German Abstand
* Italian distanza
* Portuguese distância
* Spanish distancia

afstand

(countable, uncountable) amount of space between points

[N]other perceaueth the concordaunt and diſcordante diſtaunces of ſoundes, and tunes […]

1551, Thomas More, “The Second Boke of the Communycacion of Raphael Hythlodaye, Concernynge the Best State of a Commen Wealthe: Cõteynyng the Discription of Utopia, with a Large Declaration of the Godly Gouernement, and of All the Good Lawes and Orders of the Same Ilande. Of Their Iourneyenge or Trauaylynge abrode, with Dyuers Other Matters Cunnyngly Reasoned & Wittilie Discussed.”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the Newe Yle Called Utopia: […], London: […] [Steven Mierdman for] Abraham Vele, […], →OCLC, signature [M.vj.], verso:

(music) A difference in pitch between sounds; an interval.


catch

en-noun

catch (countable and uncountable, plural catches)

From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan.
The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.

gloss

Let us be jocund: will you troll the catch / You taught me but while-ere?

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

One night, I remember, we sang a catch, written (words and music) by Orlo Williams, for three voices.

1966, Allen Tate, T. S. Eliot: The Man and His Work, page 76:

(countable, music) A type of humorous round in which the voices gradually catch up with one another; usually sung by men and often having bawdy lyrics.

The phrase repeated itself like the catch of a song.

2003, Robert Hugh Benson, Come Rack! Come Rope!, page 268:

(countable, music) The refrain; a line or lines of a song which are repeated from verse to verse.


spelling

en-noun

spelling (countable and uncountable, plural spellings)

orthography

precisely hypernymous but loosely synonymous

The spelling of a pitch is strongly influenced by its harmonic and melodic context.

2004, Joshua Stoddard, Christopher Raphael, Paul E. Utgoff, Well-Tempered Spelling: A Key-Invariant Pitch Spelling Algorithm, page 1:

(music) A choice of notation among enharmonic equivalents for the same pitch.


apparatus

apparatus (plural apparatuses or apparatusses or apparatus or (both rare) apparatûs or apparatūs or (hypercorrect) apparati)

apparatuses (plural)
apparatusses (plural)
apparatus (plural)
apparatûs (plural rare)
apparatūs (plural rare)
apparati (hypercorrect plural rare)

/æp.əˈɹɑː.təs/

Borrowed from Latin apparātus. Doublet of apparat.

(firefighting) A vehicle used for emergency response.


addition

addition (countable and uncountable, plural additions)

Sense of “what is added” dates from 14th century, from Middle English addicioun, addition, from Old French adition, from Latin additiōnem, accusative singular of additiō, from addō (“add, put”).

(music) A dot at the right side of a note as an indication that its sound is to be lengthened one half.


grind

grind (countable and uncountable, plural grinds)

From Middle English grynden, from Old English grindan, from Proto-West Germanic *grindan, from Proto-Germanic *grindaną.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian gríende, griene (“to grind, mill”), Dutch grinden (“to grind”, rare) and grind (“gravel, shingle”), Albanian grind (“to brawl, fight”).

(uncountable, music) Clipping of grindcore (“subgenre of heavy metal”).


conductor

Borrowed from Middle French conductour, from Old French conduitor, from Latin conductor.

(music) A person who conducts an orchestra, choir or other music ensemble; a professional whose occupation is conducting.


foot

foot (plural feet or (UK colloquial, unit of measure) foot)

→ Assamese: ফুট (phut)

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">feet</i>

→ Japanese: フット (futto), フート (fūto); フィート (fīto) (from feet)

→ Russian: фут (fut)

Sranan Tongo: futu

Aukan: futu

Saramaccan: fútu

→ Swahili: futi

→ Thai: ฟุต (fút)

Tok Pisin: fut, put

→ Urdu: فٹ (fuṭ)

→ Phalura: fuṭ

From Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-West Germanic *fōt, from Proto-Germanic *fōts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds. Doublet of pes, pie (“Spanish unit of length”), and pous.

doublet

not touch something with a ten-foot pole

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

(music) A unit of measure for organ pipes equal to the wavelength of two octaves above middle C, approximately 328 mm.


oil

en-noun

oil (countable and uncountable, plural oils)

From Middle English oyle, oile (“olive oil”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman olie, from Latin oleum (“oil, olive oil”), from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “olive oil”), from ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”). Compare Proto-Slavic *lojь. More at olive. Doublet of oleum. Supplanted Middle English ele (“oil”), from Old English ele (“oil”), also from Latin.

der

The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.

2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:


me

From mi (“third note of a major scale”) + -e (“flat”), from Glover's solmization, Italian mi in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin mīra in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

af

(music) The solfeggio syllable used to indicate the flat of the third note of a major scale.


blow

en-verb

blow (third-person singular simple present blows, present participle blowing, simple past blew, past participle blown)

blows (present singular third-person)
blowing (participle present)
blew (past)
blown (participle past)

From Middle English blowen, from Old English blāwan (“to blow, breathe, inflate, sound”), from Proto-West Germanic *blāan, from Proto-Germanic *blēaną (“to blow”) (compare German blähen), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₁- (“to swell, blow up”) (compare Latin flō (“to blow”) and Old Armenian բեղուն (bełun, “fertile”)).

der

'As for that,' says Will, 'I could tell it well enough, if I had it, but I must not be seen anywhere among my old acquaintances, for I am blown, and they will all betray me.'

(UK, slang, archaic) To expose, or inform on.

Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology

(Scientology, intransitive) To leave the Church of Scientology in an unauthorized manner.


blow

en-adj

blow (comparative blower or more blow, superlative blowest or most blow)

blower (comparative)
more blow (comparative)
blowest (superlative)
most blow (superlative)

From Middle English blo, bloo, from Old English blāw (“blue”), from Proto-Germanic *blēwaz (“blue, dark blue, grey, black”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlēw- (“yellow, blond, grey”). Cognate with Latin flavus (“yellow”). Doublet of blue.

der

(now chiefly puristic, dialectal, Northern England) Blue.


stride

en-noun

stride (countable and uncountable, plural strides)

From Middle English stride, stryde, from Old English stride (“a stride, pace”), from the verb (see above). Doublet of strid.

(uncountable, music) A jazz piano style of the 1920s and 1930s. The left hand characteristically plays a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a chord on the second and fourth beats.


underlay

/ˈʌndəɹˌleɪ/

From Middle English underlay, underlei, equivalent to under- + lay.

The underlay in bar 3 is unclear in Handel's manuscript.

(music) Lyrics; or more specifically, the way in which lyrics are assigned to musical notes.


bright

en-adj

bright (comparative brighter, superlative brightest)

brighter (comparative)
brightest (superlative)

The adjective is from Middle English bright, from Old English beorht, from Proto-West Germanic *berht, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (“bright”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵ- (“to shine, to gleam, whiten”).
The noun is derived from Middle English bright (“brightness, brilliance; daylight; light”), from bright (adjective): see above.
The English word is cognate with Albanian bardhë (“white”), Dutch brecht (in personal names), Icelandic bjartur (“bright”), Lithuanian brekšta (“to dawn”), Middle Irish brafad (“blink of an eye”), Norwegian bjart (“bright, clear, shining”), Persian برازیدن (barâzidan, “to beautify; to befit”), Northern Luri بڵێز (bełız, “blaze”) Russian бре́зжить (brézžitʹ, “to dawn; to flicker faintly, glimmer; (figuratively) of a hope, thought, etc.: to begin to manifest, emerge”), Sanskrit भ्राजते (bhrājate), Scots bricht (“bright”), Welsh berth (“beautiful, fair, fine”) (obsolete).

cog

the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long

The sky was remarkably bright and blue on that beautiful summer day.

Where the bright Seraphim in burning row / Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow; / And the Cherubick hoſt in thouſand quires / Touch their immortal Harps of golden wires, […]

1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “At a Solemn Musick”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC, page 22:

Thee Father firſt they ſung Omnipotent, / […] that brighteſt Seraphim / Approach not, but with both their wings veil thir eyes.

1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 372 and 381–382:

There were very few people about, and though the sun was bright, and the air clear and fresh, the big, grim-looking waves, that seemed dark themselves because the foam that topped them was like snow, forced themselves in through the narrow mouth of the harbour—like a bullying man going through a crowd.

1897, Bram Stoker, “Cutting from ‘The Dailygraph,’ 8 August (Pasted in Mina Murray’s Journal.)”, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter VII, page 95:

Emitting much light; visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, radiant.

لَامِع

emitting much light; visually dazzling — see also luminous, radiant

Could you please dim the light? It’s far too bright.

(music) Of a rhythm or tempo: lively, upbeat.

(figuratively)
(music) Of a note: slightly sharp.


bright

Thee Father firſt they ſung Omnipotent, / […] when thou ſhad'ſt / The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud / Drawn round about thee like a radiant Shrine, / Dark with exceſſive bright thy ſkirts appeer, / Yet dazle Heav'n, […]

1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 372 and 377–381:


brush

en-noun

brush (countable and uncountable, plural brushes)

From Middle English brusshe, from Old French broisse (Modern French brosse), from Vulgar Latin *brustia, from Frankish *bursti, from Proto-Germanic *burstiz (“bristle”), or also Vulgar Latin *bruscia, from Proto-Germanic *bruskaz (“tuft, thicket, underbrush”), which could be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrusgo-.

der

(music) An instrument, resembling a brush, used to produce a soft sound from drums or cymbals.


button

→ German: Button

→ Hindi: बटन (baṭan)

→ Gujarati: બટન (baṭan)

→ Korean: 버튼 (beoteun)

→ Maori: pātene

→ Marathi: बटण (baṭaṇ)

→ Urdu: بٹن (baṭan)

From Middle English boton, botoun, from Old French boton (Modern French bouton), from Old French bouter, boter (“to push; thrust”), ultimately from a Germanic language. Doublet of Biden and beat. More at butt.

(lutherie) In an instrument of the violin family, the near-semicircular shape extending from the top of the back plate of the instrument, meeting the heel of the neck.

(lutherie) Synonym of endbutton, part of a violin-family instrument.

(lutherie, bowmaking) Synonym of adjuster.


break

From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). The word is a doublet of bray.
Cognates
Cognates of Germanic origin include Scots brek (“to break”), West Frisian brekke (“to break”), Dutch breken (“to break”), Low German breken (“to break”), German brechen (“to break”), French broyer (“to crush, grind”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break, destroy”), Norwegian brek (“desire, yearning”).
Also cognate with Albanian brishtë (“fragile”), Latin frangō (“break, break up, shatter”, verb), whence English fracture and other terms – fragile, frail, fraction, and fragment.

cog

The fiddle break was amazing; it was a pity the singer came back in on the wrong note.

The effect was weird, because with that intuitive sense possessed by the African, every drummer knew exactly when the “breaks” were coming, and whole banks of bass drums would drop out precisely on the beat.

1937, Ivan T. Sanderson, Animal Treasure, page 233:

(music) A short section of music, often between verses, in which some performers stop while others continue.

tauko

music: short section of music in which some performers stop

Crossing the break smoothly is one of the first lessons the young clarinettist needs to master.

(music) The point in the musical scale at which a woodwind instrument is designed to overblow, that is, to move from its lower to its upper register.

34. Of the Registers of the Voice - All singers have observed that there are certain parts of the Vocal Scale where a break, as it is called, seldom fails to occur.

1862, John Winebrenner, The Serephina, Or, Christian Library of Church Music, page 13:

The point of division between the two vocal registers is most frequently referred to as the register’s break.

2007, S. Anthony Frisella, The Baritone Voice: A Personal Guide to Acquiring a Superior Singing Technique, page 14:

Boys should continue in their high voice, across the break to the lower range, and end up with a voice that doesn’t have a break (Leck, 2009).

2018, Karen Brunssen, The Evolving Singing Voice: Changes Across the Lifespan, page 76:

(music) The transition area between a singer's vocal registers; the passaggio.

passaggio

music: a transition area between a singer’s vocal registers


break

Clipping of breakdown (the percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music) and see also breakdancing.

gloss

The smooth criminal on beat breaks / Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes

1994, “N.Y. State of Mind”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas:

(music) A section of extended repetition of the percussion break to a song, created by a hip-hop DJ as rhythmic dance music.


break

en-verb

break (third-person singular simple present breaks, present participle breaking, simple past and past participle breaked)

breaks (present singular third-person)
breaking (participle present)
breaked (participle past)
breaked (past)

Let the poppers pop and the breakers break / We're cool, cool cats, it's like that

1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC:


burn

burn (third-person singular simple present burns, present participle burning, simple past and past participle burned or (mostly Commonwealth) burnt or (obsolete) brent)

burns (present singular third-person)
burning (participle present)
burned (participle past)
burned (past)
burnt (Commonwealth participle past)
burnt (Commonwealth past)
brent (obsolete participle past)
brent (obsolete past)
burn (infinitive)

Sranan Tongo: bron

Aukan: boon

From Middle English bernen, birnen, from Old English birnan (“to burn”), metathesis from Proto-West Germanic *brinnan, from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (“to burn”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenw-, present stem from *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of brew.
See also Middle Irish brennim (“drink up”), bruinnim (“bubble up”); also Middle Irish bréo (“flame”), Albanian burth (“Cyclamen hederifolium, mouth burning”), Sanskrit भुरति (bhurati, “moves quickly, twitches, fidgets”). More at brew.

verbranden

chemistry: to cause to combine with oxygen or other active agent

He watched the house burn.

Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

(intransitive) To be consumed by fire, or in flames.

(photography) To increase the exposure for certain areas of a print in order to make them lighter (compare dodge).

lisävalottaa

photography: to increase the exposure for certain areas of a print


twang

Onomatopoeic. Compare Middle English twengen (“to pinch, tweak”), from Old English twenġen (“to pinch, twinge”); Middle English twingen (“to afflict, torment, oppress”), from Old Norse þvinga (“to weigh down, oppress”); Old English twingan (“to force, press”).

Let me give you in rude recitation, with here and there a twang and a caper of the guitar-strings, my vision of the Cid's sally from his besieged castle of Alcocer—the first outburst of that Spanish deluge that never receded till it rose over the dead body of the last Moor.

1860, [George] Walter Thornbury, “Life in Spain: Past and Present”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 148:

The sharp, quick sound of a vibrating tight string, for example, of a bow or a musical instrument.

(music) A particular sharp vibrating sound characteristic of electric guitars.

Near-synonym: nasality

nasal twang

(phonetics) The sound quality that appears in the human voice when the epilaryngeal tube is narrowed.


twang

en-verb

twang (third-person singular simple present twangs, present participle twanging, simple past and past participle twanged)

twangs (present singular third-person)
twanging (participle present)
twanged (participle past)
twanged (past)

(transitive, intransitive) To produce or cause to produce a sharp vibrating sound, like a tense string pulled and suddenly let go.

brnknout

to produce or cause to produce a sharp vibrating sound

(music) To play a stringed musical instrument by plucking and snapping.

näppäillä

music: to play a stringed musical instrument by plucking and snapping


shed

shed (third-person singular simple present sheds, present participle shedding, simple past and past participle shed or (nonstandard) shedded)

sheds (present singular third-person)
shedding (participle present)
shed (participle past)
shed (past)
shedded (nonstandard participle past)
shedded (nonstandard past)

From Middle English scheden, schede, from Old English scēadan, scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; decree; write down; differ”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþan, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþaną (compare West Frisian skiede, Dutch and German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyt- (“to cut, part, divide, separate”), from *skey-.
See also Welsh chwydu (“to break open”), Lithuanian skėsti (“to spread”), skíesti (“to separate”), Old Church Slavonic цѣдити (cěditi, “to filter, strain”), Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”), Old Armenian ցտեմ (cʻtem, “to scratch”), Sanskrit च्यति (cyáti, “he cuts off”)). Related to shoad, shit, sheath.

cog

(music, slang) Alternative form of woodshed


shed

en-verb

shed (third-person singular simple present sheds, present participle shedding, simple past and past participle shedded)

sheds (present singular third-person)
shedding (participle present)
shedded (participle past)
shedded (past)

Dialectal variant of a specialized use of shade.


shake

From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, swing, escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek- (“to jump, move”).
Cognate with Scots schake, schack (“to shake”), West Frisian schaekje (“to shake”), Dutch schaken (“to elope, make clean, shake”), Low German schaken (“to move, shift, push, shake”) and schacken (“to shake, shock”), Old Norse skaka (“to shaka”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Danish skage (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock.

cog

(music) A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.

A Signora Rossinuola, with the face of a goddess, and the voice of an angel, made her first curtsy that evening to the Neapolitans. She was received with the most rapturous applause. Nothing was heard of next day but her shake and her smile.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 263:

(music) In singing, notes (usually high ones) sung vibrato.


bell

→ Fiji Hindi: belo

→ Japanese: ベル (beru)

→ Korean: 벨 (bel)

From Middle English belle, from Old English belle (“bell”), from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ. Cognate with West Frisian belle, bel, Dutch bel, Low German Belle, Bel, Danish bjelde, Swedish bjällra, Norwegian bjelle, Icelandic bjalla.

HEAR the sledges with the bells —
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

(music) A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.

(music) The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.

камбановидно разширение

the flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument

campanilian

related to a peal of bells or bell tower


attack

Borrowed from French attaque, derived from the verb attaquer, from Italian attaccare (“to join, attach”) (used in attaccare battaglia (“to join battle”)), from Frankish *stakka (“stick”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Old English on rǣsan (“to attack”) and onrǣs (“an attack”).

Eric Reed was a curious choice as pianist, since his busy Petersonian attack is the antithesis of Lewis's, but he acquitted himself with panache, […]

2004, Gary Giddins, Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century, page 322:

(music) The onset of a musical note, particularly with respect to the strength (and duration) of that onset.


whistle

en-noun

whistle (countable and uncountable, plural whistles)

From Middle English whistel, whistil, whistle, from Old English hwistle, from the verb (see below).

it's not the whistle that pulls the train

We expressed our readiness, and in ten minutes were in the station wagon, rolling rapidly down the long drive, for it was then after nine.[…]As we reached the lodge we heard the whistle, and we backed up against one side of the platform as the train pulled up at the other.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A shrill, high-pitched sound made by whistling.

the whistle of the wind in the trees

Any high-pitched sound similar to the sound made by whistling.


whistle

en-verb

whistle (third-person singular simple present whistles, present participle whistling, simple past and past participle whistled)

whistles (present singular third-person)
whistling (participle present)
whistled (participle past)
whistled (past)

From Middle English whistlen, from Old English hwistlan, hwistlian (“to whistle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwistlōn, from Proto-Germanic *hwistlōną (“to make a hissing sound”). Cognate with Icelandic hvísla (“to whisper”), Russian свистеть (svistetʹ, “to whistle”).

cog

Whistle in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Never whistle at a funeral.

She was whistling a happy tune.

(transitive, intransitive) To make a shrill, high-pitched sound by forcing air through the mouth. To produce a whistling sound, restrictions to the flow of air are created using the teeth, tongue and lips.

The steam train whistled as it passed by.

It requires quite an orchestra to get a train to start; the guard blows his horn, the stationmaster rings a large bell, and the engine whistles.

1941 February, Voyageur, “The Railways of Greece”, in Railway Magazine, page 67:

(transitive, intransitive) To make a similar sound by forcing air through a musical instrument or a pipe etc.


string

en-noun

string (countable and uncountable, plural strings)

Tok Pisin: string

→ Dutch: string

→ Finnish: stringit

→ French: string

→ German: String

desc

מחרוז//מַחְרֹזֶת

→ Hebrew: מחרוז／מַחְרֹזֶת (makhrózet) (semantic loan)

→ Japanese: ストリング (sutoringu)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: streng (semantic loan)

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: streng (semantic loan)

→ Polish: stringi

→ Portuguese: estrém; string

→ Swedish: string

From Middle English string, streng, strynge, from Old English strenġ, from Proto-West Germanic *strangi, from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (“string”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“rope, cord, strand; to tighten”).
Cognate with Scots string (“string”), Dutch streng (“cord, strand”), Low German strenge (“strand, cord, rope”), German Strang (“strand, cord, rope”), Danish streng (“string”), Swedish sträng (“string, cord, wire”), Icelandic strengur (“string”), Latvian stringt (“to be tight, wither”), Latin stringō (“I tighten”), Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, “tied together, entangled, twisted”).

cog

στραγγαλόομαι

弦

any similar long, thin and flexible object

弓弦

ゆづる, yuzuru, ゆみづる, yumizuru, ゆんづる, yunzuru

a violinstring

a bowstring

(countable) Any similar long, thin and flexible object.

(music) A segment of wire (typically made of plastic or metal) or other material used as vibrating element on a musical instrument.

(music, metonymically, countable) A stringed instrument.

(music, usually in the plural) The stringed instruments as a section of an orchestra, especially those played by a bow, or the persons playing those instruments.

(oil industry) A column of drill pipe that transmits drilling fluid (via the mud pumps) and torque (via the kelly drive or top drive) to the drill bit.


analysis

en-noun

analysis (countable and uncountable, plural analyses)

From Medieval Latin analysis, from Ancient Greek ἀνάλυσις (análusis), from ἀναλύω (analúō, “I unravel, investigate”), from ἀνα- (ana-, “thoroughly”) + λύω (lúō, “I loosen”).

language analysis for the determination of origin

List of terms used in mathematical analysis

(uncountable, music) The analytical study of melodies, harmonies, sequences, repetitions, variations, quotations, juxtapositions, and surprises.


swell

swell (countable and uncountable, plural swells)

From Middle English swelle, from the verb swellen (modern swell).

He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

(music) A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.

起伏

music: gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo

(music) A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.

kivimbe

music: device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ

(music) A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.


acoustics

"Acoustics, then, or the science of sound, is a very consderable branch of physics, and one which has been cultivated from the earliest ages.

1831, John Herschel, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green: Paternoster Row, and John Taylor, Upper Gower Street, page 248:

(physics) The science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena and laws.

акустика

the science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena and laws

hangtan

easier to understand but ambiguous with phonetics


tongue

tongue (countable and uncountable, plural tongues)

Australian Kriol: tang

Bislama: tang

Sranan Tongo: tongo

Tok Pisin: tang

Torres Strait Creole: tang

From Middle English tonge, tunge, tung, from Old English tunge, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”) (compare West Frisian tonge, Dutch tong, Luxembourgish Zong, German Zunge, Yiddish צונג (tsung), Danish tunge, Norwegian Bokmål tunge, Swedish tunga, Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō)), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s. Cognate with Old Irish tengae, Latin lingua, Tocharian A käntu, Tocharian B kantwo, Lithuanian liežùvis, Russian язык (jazyk), Polish język, Old Armenian լեզու (lezu), Avestan 𐬵𐬌𐬰𐬎𐬎𐬁 (hizuuā), Zazaki Zon, Ashkun žū, Kamkata-viri dić, Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā́). Doublet of language and lingua.

puhe

uncountable: discourse, fluency of speech


tongue

en-verb

tongue (third-person singular simple present tongues, present participle tonguing, simple past and past participle tongued)

tongues (present singular third-person)
tonguing (participle present)
tongued (participle past)
tongued (past)

have something on the tip of one's tongue

Playing wind instruments involves tonguing on the reed or mouthpiece.

(music, transitive, intransitive) On a wind instrument, to articulate a note by starting the air with a tap of the tongue, as though by speaking a 'd' or 't' sound (alveolar plosive).


slide

slide (third-person singular simple present slides, present participle sliding, simple past slid, past participle slid or (archaic) slidden)

slides (present singular third-person)
sliding (participle present)
slid (past)
slid (participle past)
slidden (archaic participle past)

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

From Middle English sliden, from Old English slīdan (“to slide”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīdan, from Proto-Germanic *slīdaną (“to slide, glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sléydʰ-e-ti, from *sleydʰ- (“slippery”). Cognate with Old High German slītan (“to slide”) (whence German schlittern), Middle Low German slīden (“to slide”), Middle Dutch slīden (“to slide”) (whence Dutch slijderen, frequentative of now obsolete slijden), Vedic Sanskrit स्रेधति (srédhati, “to err, blunder”).

cog

(music) To smoothly pass from one note to another by bending the pitch upwards or downwards.

liukua

music: to smoothly pass from one note to another


slide

→ Czech: slajd

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

→ Persian: اسلاید (eslâyd)

→ Polish: slajd

→ Portuguese: slide

(music, guitar) A hand-held device made of smooth, hard material, used in the practice of slide guitar.

(music) A grace consisting of two or more small notes moving by conjoint degrees, and leading to a principal note either above or below.


hit

en-verb

hit (third-person singular simple present hits, present participle hitting, simple past hit or (dialectal, obsolete) hat or (rare, dialectal) het, past participle hit or (archaic, rare, dialectal) hitten)

hits (present singular third-person)
hitting (participle present)
hit (past)
hat (dialectal obsolete past)
het (dialectal past rare)
hit (participle past)
hitten (archaic dialectal participle past rare)

miss

antonym(s) of “manage to touch in the right place”

From Middle English hitten (“to hit, strike, make contact with”), from Old English hittan (“to meet with, come upon, fall in with”), from Old Norse hitta (“to strike, meet”), from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną (“to come upon, find”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (“to fall; fall upon; hit; cut; hew”).
Cognate with Icelandic hitta (“to meet”), Danish hitte (“to find”), Latin caedō (“to kill”), Albanian qit (“to hit, throw, pull out, release”).

cog

don't let the door hit you on the way out

let the door hit you where the good Lord split you

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

I'd love to hear your band play.
Hit it boys!

(transitive, music, informal) To commence playing.


swing

en-verb

swing (third-person singular simple present swings, present participle swinging, simple past swung or (archaic or dialectal) swang, past participle swung or (archaic) swungen)

swings (present singular third-person)
swinging (participle present)
swung (past)
swang (archaic dialectal past)
swung (participle past)
swungen (archaic participle past)

From Middle English swyngen, from Old English swingan, from Proto-West Germanic *swingan, from Proto-Germanic *swinganą (compare Low German swingen, German schwingen, Dutch zwingen, Swedish svinga), from Proto-Indo-European *swenk-, *sweng- (compare Scottish Gaelic seang (“thin”)). Related to swink.

lyödä kierre

cricket: to make the ball move sideways in its trajectory

at church every time the doors swing open

(transitive, music) To play notes that are in pairs by making the first of the pair slightly longer than written (augmentation) and the second shorter, resulting in a bouncy, uneven rhythm.

svengata

music: to produce a bouncy, uneven rhythm


swing

en-noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

It makes no diff'rence / if it's sweet or hot. / Just give that rhythm / ev'rything you've got! / It don't mean a thing / if it ain't got that swing.

1931, “It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)”, Irving Mills (lyrics), Duke Ellington (music), performed by Ivie Anderson with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra, Brunswick, catalog number 6265:

(music) The genre of music associated with this dance style.

In a musical theater production, a performer who understudies several roles.


acoustic

Borrowed from Medieval Latin acousticus, from Ancient Greek ἀκουστῐκός (akoustikós, “of or for hearing”), from ἀκούω (akoúō, “to hear”) + -ῐκός (-ikós, adjectival suffix). Sense 4 ("autistic") was popularized on TikTok in late October 2023.

صَوْتِيّ

pertaining to hearing or the science of sounds

acoustic guitar, acoustic piano

(music) Naturally producing or produced by an instrument without electrical amplification or the need thereof.

акустичен

producing or produced without electrical amplification


family

en-noun

family (countable and uncountable, plural families)

Jamaican Creole: faambli, fambili

Tok Pisin: famili

Sranan Tongo: famiri

→ Chuukese: famini

→ Malay: famili

→ Maori: whāmere

From Late Middle English famylye, from Latin familia (“a household”). Displaced native Old English hīred. Doublet of familia.

عَائِلَة

group of people related by blood, marriage, law, or custom

the family that lays together stays together

the family that prays together stays together

the family that sleeps together keeps together

the brass family;  the violin family

(countable, music) A group of instruments having the same basic method of tone production.

ընտանիք

music: a group of instruments having the same basic method of tone production


split

→ Irish: spliota

Attested since about 1567, from Middle Dutch splitten (“to split”) and/or Middle Low German splitten (“to split”), both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *splittjan, an intensive form of Proto-West Germanic *splītan (“to split”), from Proto-Germanic *splītaną (whence Danish splitte, Low German splieten, German spleißen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pley- (“to split, splice”).
Compare Middle English ysplett (“split”, past participle of splatten (“to split”)), Old English speld (“splinter”), Old High German spaltan (“to split”), Old Irish sliss (“splinter”), Lithuanian spaliai (“flax sheaves”), Czech půl (“half”), Old Church Slavonic рас-плитати (ras-plitati, “to cleave, split”).

cog

past participle of <i class="Latn mention" lang="enm">splatten</i> (“to split”)

(music) A recording containing songs by multiple artists; a split single.


ride

en-verb

ride (third-person singular simple present rides, present participle riding, simple past rode or (obsolete) rade or (obsolete) rid, past participle ridden or (now colloquial and nonstandard) rode)

rides (present singular third-person)
riding (participle present)
rode (past)
rade (obsolete past)
rid (obsolete past)
ridden (participle past)
rode (colloquial nonstandard participle past)

From Middle English riden, from Old English rīdan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan, from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreydʰ-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH-.
Cognates:
From Proto-Germanic: North Frisian ride (“to ride”), Saterland Frisian riede (“to ride”), West Frisian ride (“to ride”), Low German rieden (“to ride”), Dutch rijden (“to ride”), German reiten (“to ride”), Danish ride (“to ride”), Swedish rida (“to ride”).
From Indo-European: Welsh rhwyddhau (“to hurry”).

set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil

The quintet in Propheticape muses out-of-measured-time until Holland leads it into swift, riding jazz.

2000, Max Harrison, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker, The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to postmodernism, page 238:

(music) In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style.


ride

She's playing cheerful music on the ride cymbal!


do

Coined by Italian musicologist Giovanni Battista Doni in 1635 as an easier-to-sing open-syllable revision to the solmization ut of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin Dominus (“The Lᴏʀᴅ”) (speculated by some to be an ulterior abbreviation of Giovanni Battista Doni) on the pattern of other Latinate solfège with the stated justification that God is the tonic and root of the world.

coin

(music) A syllable used in solfège to represent the first and eighth tonic of a major scale.


cough

The noun is derived from Middle English cough (“a cough; illness causing coughing”) [and other forms], from coughen (verb): see etymology 1.
The interjection is probably derived from the noun.

nb...

caughe, cogh, coghe, coght, cohw, coughe, couhe, couth, couwe, couȝe, couȝhe, cowh, cowȝe, coȝgth, kogh, koghe, koghwhe, kouhe, kouȝh, kouȝhe, kouȝwhe, kuowh, kowh

He was—cough—indisposed.

Used to represent the sound of a cough (noun sense 1), especially when focusing attention on a following utterance, often an attribution of blame or a euphemism: ahem.


thunder

en-noun

thunder (countable and uncountable, plural thunders)

→ Alemannic German: Thönder

→ Japanese: サンダー (sandā)

→ Tagalog: tanders

→ Tok Pisin: tanda

From Middle English thunder, thonder, thundre, thonre, thunnere, þunre, from Old English þunor (“thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunr, from Proto-Germanic *þunraz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ten-, *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”).
Compare astound, astonish, stun. Germanic cognates include West Frisian tonger, Dutch donder, German Donner, Old Norse Þórr (English Thor), Danish torden, Norwegian Nynorsk tore. Other cognates include Persian تندر (tondar), Latin tonō, detonō, Ancient Greek στένω (sténō), στενάζω (stenázō), στόνος (stónos), Στέντωρ (Sténtōr), Irish torann, Welsh taran, Gaulish Taranis. Doublet of donner, Thunor, and Thor.

Thunder is preceded by lightning.

The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.

Off in the distance, he heard the thunder of hoofbeats, signalling a stampede.

A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.

The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

(obsolete) The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.


thunder

en-verb

thunder (third-person singular simple present thunders, present participle thundering, simple past and past participle thundered)

thunders (present singular third-person)
thundering (participle present)
thundered (participle past)
thundered (past)
thunder (infinitive)

It thundered continuously.

(impersonal) To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

"Get back to work at once!", he thundered.

(intransitive, transitive) To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.

jyristä

transitive: say something with a loud, threatening voice

thunderer

to say something with a loud, threatening voice


violin

→ Japanese: バイオリン (baiorin)

→ Korean: 바이올린 (baiollin)

From Italian violino (“little viola”), from viola + -ino (forming diminutives).

When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like this, it's a violin.

She was looking more like Sherlock Holmes than ever. Slap a dressing-gown on her and give her a violin, and she could have walked straight into Baker Street and no questions asked.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

(music) A small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin and played with a bow.

The first violin often plays the lead melody lines in a string quartet.

(music, metonymically) The position of a violinist in an orchestra or group.


guitar

→ Amharic: ጊታር (gitar)

→ Bengali: গিটার (giṭar)

→ Cantonese: 結他／结他 (git3 taa1)

→ Gujarati: ગિટાર (giṭār)

→ Hindi: गिटार (giṭār)

→ Irish: giotár

→ Japanese: ギター (gitā)

→ Hakka: 吉他 (kí-tá)

→ Hokkien: 吉他 (gì-tà, gih-tah)

→ Korean: 기타 (gita)

→ Mandarin: 吉他 (jítā)

→ Scottish Gaelic: giotàr

→ Sidamo: giitare

→ Thai: กีตาร์ (gii-dtâa)

Etymology tree
Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kithárā)bor.
Aramaic קיתראbor.
Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra)bor.
Old Spanish guitarra
Spanish guitarrabor.
English guitar
From Spanish guitarra, from Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra), from Ancient Greek κῐθᾰ́ρᾱ (kithárā). Doublet of cithara, cither, and zither.

der

Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra)

Learning to strum the guitar rhythmically is essential.

She was carrying her guitar in a fancily-decorated case.

The band is looking for a new guitar player.

(music) A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).

(music) Any type of musical instrument of the lute family, characterized by a flat back, along with a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard.


effect

en-noun

effect (countable and uncountable, plural effects)

Of the noun: from Middle English effect, from Old French effect (modern French effet), from Latin effectus (“an effect, tendency, purpose”), from efficiō (“accomplish, complete, effect”); see effect as a verb. Displaced Old English fremming, fremednes from fremman.
Of the verb: from Middle English effecten, partly from Medieval Latin effectuō, from Latin effectus, perfect passive participle of efficiō (“accomplish, complete, do, effect”), from ex (“out”) + faciō (“do, make”) (see fact and compare affect, infect) and partly from the noun effect.

der

I use an echo effect here to make the sound more mysterious.

I just bought a couple of great effects.

(sound engineering) An alteration, or device for producing an alteration, in sound after it has been produced by an instrument.


ermine

en-noun

ermine (countable and uncountable, plural ermines or ermine)

From Middle English ermine, ermin, ermyn, from Old French ermin, ermine, hermine.
There are two main theories for the origin of Old French ermine. Germanic origin is suggested via Old Dutch *harmino (“stoat skin”), from *harmo (“stoat, weasel”) (compare Dutch hermelijn and dialectal herm), from Proto-Germanic *harmǭ, *harmô (compare Old English hearma, Old High German harmo (harmin (adjective), obsolete German Harm), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱormō (compare Romansch carmun, obsolete Lithuanian šarmuõ). Romance sources identify the animal with the corresponding word for Armenian, possibly from Medieval Latin mūs Armenius (“Armenian mouse”) or a posterior compound.

der

(heraldry) The fur of this animal, used as a heraldic tincture: a white field with a repeating pattern of stylized black spots.

hermelín

(heraldry) a white field with black spots


ermine

(heraldry) In blazon, of the colour ermine (white with black spots).

hermelínový

of white colour with black spots on a coat of arms


laser

A gum resin obtained from certain umbelliferous plants.


cut

en-noun

cut (countable and uncountable, plural cuts)

From Middle English cutten, kitten, kytten, ketten (“to cut”) (compare Scots kut, kit (“to cut”)), of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse *kytja, *kutta, from Proto-Germanic *kutjaną, *kuttaną (“to cut”), of uncertain origin, perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *kwetwą (“meat, flesh”) (compare Old Norse kvett (“meat”)). Akin to Middle Swedish kotta (“to cut or carve with a knife”) (compare dialectal Swedish kåta, kuta (“to cut or chip with a knife”), Swedish kuta, kytti (“a knife”)), Norwegian Bokmål kutte (“to cut”), Norwegian Nynorsk kutte (“to cut”), Icelandic kuta (“to cut with a knife”), Old Norse kuti (“small knife”), Norwegian kyttel, kytel, kjutul (“pointed slip of wood used to strip bark”). Displaced native Middle English snithen (from Old English snīþan; compare German schneiden), which still survives in some dialects as snithe or snead. See snide. Adjective sense of "drunk" (now rare and now usually used in the originally jocular derivative form of half-cut) dates from the 17th century, from cut in the leg, to have cut your leg, euphemism for being very drunk.

leikkaus

notch, passage, or channel made by cutting or digging

(petrochemistry) The range of temperatures used to distill a particular mixture of hydrocarbons from crude oil.


augment

en-verb

augment (third-person singular simple present augments, present participle augmenting, simple past and past participle augmented)

augments (present singular third-person)
augmenting (participle present)
augmented (participle past)
augmented (past)

From Middle English augmenten, from Middle French augmenter, from Old French augmenter, from Late Latin augmentare (“to increase”), from Latin augmentum (“an increase, growth”), from augere (“to increase”).

(music) To slow the tempo or meter, e.g. for a dramatic or stately passage.

(music) To increase an interval, especially the largest interval in a triad, by a half step (chromatic semitone).


cuckoo

en-noun

cuckoo (countable and uncountable, plural cuckoos)

From Middle English cokkou, probably from Old French cucu (whence French coucou); ultimately onomatopoeic of the song of the male Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), perhaps via Latin cucūlus (“cuckoo”). Displaced native Old English ġēac (Middle English ȝek (“cuckoo”)).

He knows me, as the blind man knows the cuckoo, / By the bad voice.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

Cuculus canorus
Cuculus canorus#Translingual

Any of various birds, of the family Cuculidae, famous for laying its eggs in the nests of other species; but especially a common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus), that has a characteristic two-note call.

The bird-shaped figure found in cuckoo clocks.

Alternative form of coo-coo (Barbadian food)


cuckoo

en-verb

cuckoo (third-person singular simple present cuckoos, present participle cuckooing, simple past and past participle cuckooed)

cuckoos (present singular third-person)
cuckooing (participle present)
cuckooed (participle past)
cuckooed (past)

She'll have been cuckooed. That'll be the Knezevics. They can't launder fast enough, so what do you do with it? Where do you put it? You hide it in somebody else's place; somebody who han't got a clue what's going on and couldn't do a fat lot about it if they did.

2023, Sally Wainwright, 26:06 from the start, in Happy Valley, season 3, episode 2, spoken by Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire):

(UK, law enforcement) To take over the home of a vulnerable person for the purposes of carrying out organized crime in a concealed way.


stab

First attested in Scottish English (compare Scots stob, stobbe, stabb (“a pointed stick or stake; a thrust with a pointed weapon”)), from Middle English stabbe (“a stab”), probably a variant of Middle English stob, stub, stubbe (“pointed stick, stake, thorn, stub, stump”), from Old Norse stobbi, stubbi, cognate with Old English stybb. Cognate with Middle Dutch stobbe.
Supposed by some to derive from Scottish Gaelic stob (“to prick, to prod, to push, to thrust”); supposed by others to be from a Scots word.

der

a horn stab

(music) A single staccato chord that adds dramatic impact to a composition.


stab

en-verb

stab (third-person singular simple present stabs, present participle stabbing, simple past and past participle stabbed)

stabs (present singular third-person)
stabbing (participle present)
stabbed (participle past)
stabbed (past)

[O]ne of the derrickman's jobs is to "stab" the pipe.

2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin, page 57:

(transitive, oil industry) To guide the end of a pipe into a coupling when making up a connection.


bridge

From Middle English brigge, from Old English brycġ (“bridge”), from Proto-Germanic *brugjō, *brugjǭ (“bridge”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrēw- (“wooden flooring, decking, bridge”).
Cognate with Scots brig, brigg, breeg (“bridge”), Saterland Frisian Brääch (“bridge”), West Frisian brêge (“bridge”), Dutch brug (“bridge”), German Brücke (“bridge”), Danish brygge (“wharf”), Icelandic brygga (“pier”), Gaulish briua (“bridge”).
The verb is from Middle English briggen, from Old English brycġian (“to bridge, make a causeway, pave”), derived from the noun. Cognate with Dutch bruggen (“to bridge”), Middle Low German bruggen (“to bridge”), Old High German bruccōn (“to bridge”) (whence Modern German brücken).
The musical connection sense is a semantic loan from German Steg, from Old High German steg.

ацҳа

construction or natural feature that spans a divide

if someone told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it

(music, lutherie) The piece, on string instruments, that supports the strings from the sounding board.

မြင်းမိုရ်

(music, lutherie) piece on string instruments

The lyrics in the song's bridge inverted its meaning.

In the bridge of his 2011 song "It Will Rain", Bruno Mars begs his lover not to "say goodbye."

(music) A contrasting section within a song that prepares for the return of the original material section.


bridge

en-verb

bridge (third-person singular simple present bridges, present participle bridging, simple past and past participle bridged)

bridges (present singular third-person)
bridging (participle present)
bridged (participle past)
bridged (past)

We need to bridge that jam into "The Eleven".

(music) To transition from one piece or section of music to another without stopping.

fondre

music: to transition from one piece or section to another


blade

From Middle English blade, blad, from Old English blæd (“leaf”), from Proto-West Germanic *blad, from Proto-Germanic *bladą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥h₃-o-to-m, from *bʰleh₃- (“to thrive, bloom”).
See also West Frisian bled, Dutch blad, German Blatt, Danish blad, Irish bláth (“flower”), Welsh blodyn (“flower”), Tocharian A pält, Tocharian B pilta (“leaf”), Albanian fletë (“leaf”). Similar usage in German Sägeblatt (“saw blade”, literally “saw leaf”). Doublet of blat. More at blow.

teh

typically sharp-edged working end of a knife or other cutting tool

He wasn’t loud, but his voice had lots of blade.

(uncountable, music) The quality of singing with a pure, resonant sound; especially of a countertenor.


piano

en-noun

piano (plural pianos or (archaic) pianoes)

pianos (plural)
pianoes (archaic plural)

Clipping of pianoforte, from Italian pianoforte, from piano (“soft”) + forte (“strong”). So named because it could produce a wide range of varied volumes note-by-note, in contrast to older keyboard instruments, notably the harpsichord. Doublet of llano, plain, and plane.

The piano in his house takes up a lot of space.

She has been taking lessons for many years and now plays piano very well.

(music) a percussive keyboard musical instrument, usually ranging over seven octaves, with white and black colored keys, played by pressing these keys, causing hammers to strike strings


piano

(music) softly, as a musical direction (abbreviated to p. in sheet music)


piano

en-adj

piano (comparative more piano, superlative most piano)

more piano (comparative)
most piano (superlative)


wildcat

From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat. Cognate with Middle Low German wiltkatte, German Wildkatze, Swedish vildkatt.
Its adjectival senses were originally American and derived from the "wildcat banks" of Michigan, following its elevation to statehood in 1837. Two laws—one easing the requirements for establishing a new bank and another occasioned by the Panic of 1837 that removed the need for payment in specie—led to the creation and collapse of around 50 banks within two years. The term is apocryphally derived from a wildcat supposedly featured on the currency printed by one of these banks, but more probably derived from the remote locations "where the wildcats roamed" chosen by these banks to avoid oversight and minimize redemption of notes.

John Audubon
bobcat
wildcat
wildcat (disambiguation)
wildcat cartridge

(usually derogatory) Of or concerning businesses operating outside standard or legitimate practice, especially:

(oil industry) Of or concerning oil exploration in new areas, (particularly) small, independent operations.


wildcat

en-verb

wildcat (third-person singular simple present wildcats, present participle wildcatting, simple past and past participle wildcatted)

wildcats (present singular third-person)
wildcatting (participle present)
wildcatted (participle past)
wildcatted (past)

You'd have to be very rich or very desperate to go wildcatting that far east.

His pitch was that fracking had transformed the production of gas from a hit-or-miss proposition to one that operated with an on and off switch. It was manufacturing, not wildcatting.

2018 August 30, Bethany McLean, “How America's ‘most reckless’ billionaire created the fracking boom”, in The Guardian:

(oil industry) To drill for oil in an area where no oil has been found before.


base

en-noun

base (countable and uncountable, plural bases)

acid

antonym(s) of “chemical compound that will neutralize an alkali”

From Middle English base, bas, baas, from Old French base, from Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis). Doublet of basis and bass.

أَسَاس

something from which other things extend

The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar.

1709, J[ohn] Dryden, J[ohn] Oldham, “(please specify the page)”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], →OCLC:


cook

en-verb

cook (third-person singular simple present cooks, present participle cooking, simple past and past participle cooked)

cooks (present singular third-person)
cooking (participle present)
cooked (participle past)
cooked (past)
cook (infinitive)

→? Cantonese: 焗 (guk⁶)

→ Norman: coutchi

From Middle English coken, from the noun cook. In the slang sense of "proceed with some plan", coined by American rapper from California (born 1989) Lil B in 2010 and popularized in viral tweets and TikToks in mid-2022.

coinage

Audio (UK) "to cook"

some speakers from Northern England and Ireland

cuck (most accents without the foot-strut split)

there's more than one way to cook an egg

Watch this band: they cook!

Crank up the Coltrane and start cooking!

This album is called Cookin’ at Miles’ request. He said, “After all, that’s what we did – came in and cooked.”

1957, Miles Davis quoted by Ira Gitler, liner notes to Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet, Prestige LP 7094

(intransitive, jazz, slang) To play or improvise in an inspired and rhythmically exciting way. (From 1930s jive talk.)

On the Wagner piece, the orchestra was cooking!

The tempos were swift. The orchestra cooked, reading [conductor] Kahane's mind and swinging with him as one.

2012, “Review: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra won't stand still”, in Los Angeles Times:

(intransitive, music, slang) To play music vigorously.


brass

en-noun

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)

From Middle English bras, bres, from Old English bræs (“brass, bronze”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps representing a backformation from Proto-Germanic *brasnaz (“brazen”), from or related to *brasō (“fire, pyre”). Compare Old Norse and Icelandic bras (“solder”), Icelandic brasa (“to harden in the fire”), Swedish brasa (“a small controlled fire”), Danish brase (“to fry”); French braser ("to solder"; > English braise) from the same Germanic root. Compare also Middle Dutch braspenninc ("a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch braspenning), Old Frisian bress (“copper”), Middle Low German bras (“metal, ore”).
In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.

unc

uncertain

gloss

"to solder"; > English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">braise</i>

"a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">braspenning</i>

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

(music) A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound; the section of an orchestra that features such instruments

духов

related to brass instruments (attributive use)


brass

By ellipsis from brass nail, in turn from "nail[ing]" (fig.) and "brass blonde" (see "brazen"); and also shortened from Cockney Rhyming slang brass flute for "prostitute".


beaver

en-noun

beaver (countable and uncountable, plural beavers)

The beards were false ones. I could see the elastic going over their ears. In other words, I had fallen among a band of criminals who were not wilful beavers, but had merely assumed the fungus for purposes of disguise.

(countable) A beard or a bearded person.

Referring to a beard.
A beard or a bearded person.


stick

stick (countable and uncountable, plural sticks)

→ Catalan: estic

→ Italian: stick

→ Korean: 스틱 (seutik)

→ Portuguese: stique, estique

→ Sranan Tongo: tiki

From Middle English stikke (“stick, rod, twig”), from Old English sticca (“rod, twig”), from Proto-West Germanic *stikkō, from Proto-Germanic *stikkô, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Stikke (“stick”), West Flemish stik (“stick”). Related to stigma.

der

better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

better than a poke in the eye with a shitty stick

it is easy to find a stick to beat a dog

Arsene, boy, ain't you worried about your clarinet? Where'd you leave that stick, man?

1948, Frederic Ramsey, Jr., “Deep Sea Rider”, in Charles Harvey, editor, Jazz Parody: Anthology of Jazz Fiction:

A tool, control, or instrument shaped somewhat like a stick.


gaggle

en-verb

gaggle (third-person singular simple present gaggles, present participle gaggling, simple past and past participle gaggled)

gaggles (present singular third-person)
gaggling (participle present)
gaggled (participle past)
gaggled (past)

From Middle English gagelen (“to cackle; cackle like a goose”). Compare Dutch gaggelen (“to cackle”), Icelandic gagl (“small goose; gosling”).

inh

Geese do gaggle

1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

When a friend asked Socrates, how he could bear the scolding of his wife Xantippe? he retorted, and asked him, how he could bear the gaggling of his geese?

1733, Jonathan Swift, "A New Simile for the Ladies with Useful Annotations by Dr. Sheridan", note 7 (in The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Vol. II)

To make a noise like a goose; to cackle.


comb

From Middle English comb, from Old English camb (“comb”), from Proto-West Germanic *kamb, from Proto-Germanic *kambaz (“comb”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth”), a doublet of cam. The verb is derived from the noun and displaced the older verb kemb.
Cognates
Compare Saterland Frisian Koum, Swedish/Dutch kam, Norwegian kam, German Kamm); also Tocharian B keme, Lithuanian žam̃bas (“sharp edge”), Old Church Slavonic зѫбъ (zǫbŭ), Albanian dhëmb, Ancient Greek γομφίος (gomphíos, “backtooth, molar”), Sanskrit जम्भ (jambha)).

cog

(music) The main body of a harmonica containing the air chambers and to which the reed plates are attached.


flow

en-noun

flow (countable and uncountable, plural flows)

From Middle English flowe, from the verb (see below). The psychology sense “state of focus” was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975.

coin

The production on his new mixtape is mediocre but his flow is on point.

Now shawty said she feelin' my style, she feelin' my flow […] / My flow, my show brought me the dough / That bought me all my fancy things

2003, “In da Club”, in Get Rich or Die Tryin', performed by 50 Cent:

(rap music slang) The ability to skilfully rap along to a beat.


cover

en-noun

cover (countable and uncountable, plural covers)

→ Hijazi Arabic: كَڤَر (kavar)

→ Portuguese: cover

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-?
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm
Proto-Italic *kom
Old Latin com
Latin cum
Latin con-
Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-?
Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi
Proto-Indo-European *h₂wer-
Proto-Indo-European *-yeti
Latin operiō
Latin cooperiō
Old French covrirbor.
Middle English coveren
English cover
From Middle English coveren, borrowed from Old French covrir, cueuvrir (modern French couvrir), from Late Latin coperire, from Latin cooperiō (“I cover completely”), from co- (intensive prefix) + operiō (“I close, cover”). Displaced native Middle English thecchen and bethecchen (“to cover”) (from Old English þeccan, beþeccan (“to cover”)), Middle English helen, (over)helen, (for)helen (“to cover, conceal”) (from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”)), Middle English wrien, (be)wreon (“to cover”) (from Old English (be)wrēon (“to cover”)), Middle English hodren, hothren (“to cover up”) (from Low German hudren (“to cover up”)).
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the original sense of the verb and noun cover was “hide from view” as in its cognate covert. Except in the limited sense of “cover again”, the word recover is unrelated and is cognate with recuperate. Cognate with Spanish cubrir (“to cover”).

cog

throw nickels around like manhole covers

(music) A new performance or rerecording of a previously recorded song; a cover version; a cover song.


cover

(music) Of, pertaining to, or consisting of cover versions.