adagio

/əˈdɑːd͡ʒiəʊ/

/əˈdæd͡ʒiəʊ/

(music) A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played rather slowly, leisurely and gracefully.

慢板

tempo mark indicating that music is to be played slowly


adagio

/əˈdɑːd͡ʒiəʊ/

/əˈdæd͡ʒiəʊ/


adagio

/əˈdɑːd͡ʒiəʊ/

/əˈdæd͡ʒiəʊ/

(music) Describing a passage having this mark.


chant

From Middle English chaunten, from Old French chanter, from Latin cantāre (“sing”). Doublet of cant.

(music) A short and simple melody to which unmetrical psalms, etc., are sung or recited.

(music, Anglicanism) A harmonized melody used in Anglican chant, usually split into two two-bar phrases, to which the words of a psalm are sung by a choir; typically, each musical phrase corresponds to the text of half of a verse.


soprano

en-noun

soprano (plural sopranos or soprani or sopranoes)

sopranos (plural)
soprani (plural)
sopranoes (plural)

Borrowed from Italian soprano, from Vulgar Latin *superānus, adjective from preposition Latin super (“above”). Doublet of sovereign, from the same Latin root via Old French.

The musical part higher in pitch than alto, typically encompassing the range of the treble clef.

boy soprano

soprano saxophone

I was only once faced with the task of auditioning a nimiety of sopranos.

2008, Denis Norden, chapter 8, in Chips from a Life, →ISBN:

A person or instrument that performs the soprano part.


octet

An octet of waiters sang her "Happy Birthday".

(music) A group of eight musicians performing together.

oktet

(music) A composition for such a group of musicians.


stridulation

stridulation (countable and uncountable, plural stridulations)

1838, from earlier term stridulous; from Latin strīdulus (“giving a shrill sound, creaking”), from strīdō (“utter a shrill or harsh sound; creak, shriek, grate, hiss”).

uder

The Demons were crying now too, a stridulation that rose above the clamor and seemed to pierce the skull.

1994, John Christopher, A Dusk of Demons:

A high-pitched chirping, grating, hissing, or squeaking sound, as male crickets and grasshoppers make by rubbing certain body parts together.

цвърчене

chirping, grating, or squeaking sound made by crickets and grasshoppers


ut

From Middle English ut (“first degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian ut in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the opening word Latin ut (“how”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

inh

(music, dated) Syllable (formerly) used in solfège to represent the first note of a major scale.


gong

(music) A percussion instrument consisting of a metal disk that emits a loud resonant sound when struck with a soft hammer.

This grooming of the national mindset explains the retention of 92 "hereditary peers" in the House of Lords: individuals who are gifted a right to sit in the nation's upper chamber and facilitate laws for no other reason than that their ancestor was the illegitimate child of some prince, or willing to spaff a few quid on the title when David Lloyd Gorge was selling of gongs for bribes.

2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 114:

(British, slang) A medal or award, particularly Knight Bachelor..


gong

en-verb

gong (third-person singular simple present gongs, present participle gonging, simple past and past participle gonged)

gongs (present singular third-person)
gonging (participle present)
gonged (participle past)
gonged (past)

As she was gonged, host Daryl Somers swept rapidly across and salvaged an embarrassing situation by putting his arm around her and asking her whether she had children.

1996, Stephanie Holt, Maryanne Lynch, Motherlode:

(transitive) To send a signal to, using a gong or similar device.

To halt (originally, a contestant in a talent show; later, a performer, a speaker).


blaze

blaze (third-person singular simple present blazes, present participle blazing, simple past and past participle blazed)

blazes (present singular third-person)
blazing (participle present)
blazed (participle past)
blazed (past)

From Middle English blasen, from Middle English blase (“torch”). See above.

The campfire blazed merrily.

(intransitive) To be on fire, especially producing bright flames.


roast

roast (third-person singular simple present roasts, present participle roasting, simple past and past participle roasted)

roasts (present singular third-person)
roasting (participle present)
roasted (participle past)
roasted (past)

From Middle English rosten, a borrowing from Old French rostir (“to roast, to torture with fire”), from Frankish *rōstijan (“to roast, broil”), from Proto-Germanic *raustijaną (“to roast”), from Proto-Indo-European *rews- (“to crackle; roast”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian rosterje (“to roast”), Dutch roosten, roosteren (“to roast”), German rösten (“to roast”).
Displaced native Middle English breden, bræden (“to roast”), from Old English brǣdan, related to German braten (“to roast, grill”).

der

roasted in wrath and fire

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

To heat to excess; to heat violently; to burn.


madder

en-noun

madder (countable and uncountable, plural madders)

From Middle English mader, madere, mædere, from Old English mædere, mæddre, mædre, from Proto-Germanic *madarǭ (compare Swedish madra, Old Norse / Icelandic maðra), from Proto-Indo-European *modʰro-, cognate with Proto-Slavic *modrъ (“blue”), and compare Irish madar (“madder”), Latvian madara (“madder”).

Rubia tinctorum
Rubia tinctorum#Translingual

A herbaceous plant, Rubia tinctorum, native to Asia, cultivated for a red-purple dye (alizarin) obtained from the root.


madder

en-verb

madder (third-person singular simple present madders, present participle maddering, simple past and past participle maddered)

madders (present singular third-person)
maddering (participle present)
maddered (participle past)
maddered (past)


quartet

From French quartette, from Italian quartetto. Doublet of cuarteto and quartetto.

The string quartet played some chamber music.

A group of four people or things, particularly

(music) A group of four musicians who perform classical music together.

квартет

four musicians who perform a piece of music together

He composed a string quartet.

(music) A musical composition in four parts, each performed by a single voice or instrument.

The barbershop quartet performed the composition a cappella.

(music) A group of four singers, usually males, who sings together in four-part harmony.


kit

en-noun

kit (countable and uncountable, plural kits)

From Middle English kyt, kytt, kytte, from Middle Dutch kitte (“a wooden vessel made of hooped staves”). Related to Dutch kit (“tankard”) (see below). The further etymology is unknown. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kitjō-, *kut-, which would be related to the root of Dutch kot (“ramshackle house”), itself of non-Indo-European origin.
The transfer of meaning to the contents of a soldier's knapsack dates to the late 18th century, extended use of any collection of necessaries used for travelling dates to the first half of the 19th century.
The further widening of the sense to a collection of parts sold for the buyer to assemble emerges in US English in the mid 20th century.


offbeat

From off- + beat; not following the beat (e.g., of a drum that sounds out cadence).

The congregation clapped along on the offbeat.

(music) The beats not normally accented in a measure.


match

→ Bengali: ম্যাচ (mêc)

→ Hindi: माचिस (mācis)

→ Irish: meaits

→ Japanese: マッチ (matchi)

→ Jersey Dutch: match

→ Malay: macis, mancis

→ Pashto: ماچس (māčás)

→ Urdu: ماچس (mācis)

→ Welsh: matsis

From Middle English macche, mecche (“wick (of a candle)”), from Old French mesche, meische, from Vulgar Latin micca (compare Catalan metxa, Spanish mecha, Italian miccia), which in turn is probably from Latin myxa (“nozzle, curved part of a lamp”), from Ancient Greek μύξα (múxa, “lamp wick”).

He struck a match and lit his cigarette.

A device made of wood or paper, at the tip coated with chemicals that ignite with the friction of being dragged (struck) against a rough dry surface.

自来火

⁶zy-le-hu / ²zy⁶-le²-hou³ / ⁶zy-le²-hou³


emcee

Pronunciation spelling of MC (“master of ceremonies”).

pronunciation spelling of

"I'm the emcee for tonight," he proclaimed. "I'll announce your program."

1943, "Franklin W. Dixon" (Charles Leslie McFarlane), Hardy Boys 22: The Flickering Torch Mystery

Master of ceremonies
master of ceremonies

Alternative form of MC in its senses as
Master of ceremonies.

[…] mutating into all-star line-ups of emcees spitting hot bars over familiar beats, then to a single crew spitting bars over familiar beats, then eventually to a single crew (or artist) spitting bars over unfamiliar beats.

2021, Jehnie I. Burns, Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation (page 138)

Alternative form of MC in its senses as
(music) A rapper.

Alternative form of MC in its senses as
A rapper.


emcee

en-verb

emcee (third-person singular simple present emcees, present participle emceeing, simple past and past participle emceed)

emcees (present singular third-person)
emceeing (participle present)
emceed (participle past)
emceed (past)

Alan Lomax was emceeing the blues workshop and was turned off by the Paul Butterfield Jug Band and implied as much on stage.

1965 August, Mississippi Phil Ochs, “The Newport Fuzz Festival”, in The Realist, number 61, retrieved 2022-11-13, page 11:

(transitive, intransitive) To act as the master of ceremonies (for).

(intransitive, music) To rap as part of a hip-hop performance.


jade

en-noun

jade (usually uncountable, plural jades)

Borrowed from French le jade, rebracketing of earlier l’éjade (“jade”), from Spanish piedra de ijada (“flank stone”), via Vulgar Latin *iliata from Latin ilia (“flank”). (Jade was thought to cure pains in the side.)

jade:

A bright shade of slightly bluish or greyish green, typical of polished jade stones.


reed

reed (countable and uncountable, plural reeds)

From Middle English red, reed, from Old English hrēod, from Proto-West Germanic *hreud, of uncertain origin.
Akin to Saterland Frisian Rait (“reed”), West Frisian reid (“reed”), Dutch riet (“reed”), German Ried (“reed”). No cognates in North Germanic languages, but the existence of an otherwise unattested Gothic *𐌷𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌳 (*hriud) was supposed by the brothers Grimm. They also theorised that the word may have a relation to the retas mentioned in Noctes Atticae (Aulus Gellius). The measuring reed sense is the translation of Akkadian qanûm ("cane") used in the Bible and elsewhere.

(countable, music) Part of the mouthpiece of certain woodwind instruments, comprising a thin piece of wood or metal which shakes very quickly to produce sound when a musician blows over it.

(countable, music) A musical instrument such as the clarinet or oboe, which produces sound when a musician blows on the reed.


alto

Borrowed from Italian alto (“high”). Doublet of old.

SATB

Initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass.

A musical part or section higher than tenor and lower than soprano, formerly the part that performed a countermelody above the tenor or main melody.

A person or musical instrument that performs the alto part.


retrograde

en-adj

retrograde (comparative more retrograde, superlative most retrograde)

more retrograde (comparative)
most retrograde (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English retrograd, retrograde (“of a planet: appearing to move in a direction opposite to the order of the zodiac signs, retrograde; unfortunate”), from Middle French retrograde and Old French retrograde (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards; moving backwards; reverse; palindromic; opposed to change”) (modern French rétrograde), and from their etymon Latin retrōgradus (“of a celestial object: appearing to move backwards”) (compare Late Latin retrōgradus (“reverse; palindromic”)), from retrō (“back, backwards; behind; before, formerly”) + gradus (“pace, step”). By surface analysis, retro- + -grade.
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.

cog

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

retrògrad

reverting to an inferior or less developed state — see also declining, regressing

Of the order of something: inverse, reverse.

(music) Having a passage of music played backwards.

retrògrad

having a passage of music played backwards


retrograde

/ˈɹɛtɹə(ʊ)ɡɹeɪd/

/ˈɹɛtɹəˌɡɹeɪd/

(music) The reversal of a melody so that what is played first in the original melody is played last, and what is played last in the original melody is played first.


beater

From Middle English beter, betere, bettere, from Old English bēatere (“a beater; boxer, fighter; champion”), equivalent to beat + -er. Related to beetle (“a type of mallet”).

inh

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

A stick used to play a percussion instrument.


chaser

From chase (“groove; decorate metal”) + -er.

bow chaser; stern chaser


tenor

en-noun

tenor (countable and uncountable, plural tenors)

From Middle English tenour, from Anglo-Norman tenour, from Old French tenor (“substance, contents, meaning, sense; tenor part in music”), from Latin tenor (“course, continuance; holder”), from teneō (“I hold”). In music, from the notion of the one who holds the melody, as opposed to the countertenor.

der

(music) A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.

A person, instrument, or group that performs in the tenor (higher than bass and lower than alto) range.

(archaic, music) A musical part or section that holds or performs the main melody, as opposed to the contratenor bassus and contratenor altus, who perform countermelodies.


singer

→ Japanese: シンガー (shingā)

From Middle English synger, syngere, singere, singare, equivalent to sing + -er. Cognate with Scots singar, Saterland Frisian Sjunger, West Frisian sjonger, German Low German Singer. Compare also Old English sangere, Dutch zanger, German Low German Sänger, German Sänger (“singer”), Danish sanger, Swedish sångare, Icelandic söngvari.

It's the singer, not the song.

A person who sings, often professionally.


sour

en-adj

sour (comparative sourer, superlative sourest)

sourer (comparative)
sourest (superlative)

From Middle English sour, from Old English sūr (“sour”), from Proto-West Germanic *sūr, from Proto-Germanic *sūraz (“sour”), from Proto-Indo-European *súHros (“sour”).
Cognate with West Frisian soer, Dutch zuur (“sour”), Low German suur, German sauer (“sour”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sur, French sur (“sour”), Faroese súrur (“sour”), Icelandic súr (“sour, bitter”),
Polish ser (“cheese”),
Czech sýr (“cheese”),
Slovak syr (“cheese”),
Russian сырой (syroj, “raw”),
Ukrainian сири́й (syrýj, “raw”),
Old Church Slavonic сꙑръ (syrŭ, “moist, cheese”).

cog

Unlike what the name implies, there is nothing inherently wrong with a sour note: It is perfectly well-tuned note that would sound normal in another context (and which presumably would not sound sour to someone unfamiliar with tonal music).

2010, Aniruddh D. Patel, Music, Language, and the Brain, page 201:


dirge

From Middle English dirige, from Latin dirige (“steer, direct”), from the beginning of the first antiphon in matins for the dead, Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam. Doublet of dirige.

lang

Therefore our ſometimes Siſter, now our Queen, / Th’ imperiall Ioyntreſſe of this warlike State, / Haue we, as ’twere, with a defeated ioy, / With one Auſpicious, and one Dropping eye, / With mirth in Funerall, and with Dirge in Marriage, / In equall Scale weighing Delight and Dole / Taken to Wife […]

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 153, column 2, lines 8–14:

While I watched the tempest, so beautiful yet terrific, I wandered on with a hasty step. This noble war in the sky elevated my spirits; I clasped my hands, and exclaimed aloud, “William, dear angel! this is thy funeral, this thy dirge!”

1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter VII, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:

It was as if the night sang dirges with clenched teeth.

1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:

Over six sections – a prologue, a life-story, a dream-quest, a dirge, a masque and an epilogue – they meditate on their lives, their hopes, their losses, and on the human condition.

2010 April 9, Glyn Maxwell, “WH Auden's ‘The Age of Anxiety’”, in The Guardian:

A mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.


motion

en-noun

motion (countable and uncountable, plural motions)

Inherited from Middle English mocioun, mocion, from Anglo-Norman motion, Middle French motion, and their etymon Latin mōtiō (“movement, motion”), related to movēre, from Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- (“to move”).

der

perpetual motion machine of the first kind

perpetual motion machine of the second kind

The independent motions of different parts sounding together constitute counterpoint.

1878, George Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians:

(music) Change of pitch in successive sounds, whether in the same part or in groups of parts. (Conjunct motion is that by single degrees of the scale. Contrary motion is when parts move in opposite directions. Disjunct motion is motion by skips. Oblique motion is when one part is stationary while another moves. Similar or direct motion is when parts move in the same direction.)


niente

(music) totally silent, as a musical direction (abbreviated to n. or ∅ in sheet music)


lambent

en-adj

lambent (comparative more lambent, superlative most lambent)

more lambent (comparative)
most lambent (superlative)

From Latin lambēns, present participle of lambō (“lick”).

The lambent glow of fireflies delighted the children.

[W]hile I held my son, in the short space
Betwixt our kisses and our last embrace;
Strange to relate, from young Iülus’ head
A lambent flame arose, which gently spread
Around his brows, and on his temples fed.

1697, John Dryden, Aeneas,Book II, from The Works of Virgil

1839, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jonathan Birch (translator), Faust: A Tragedy, Black and Armstrong, page 127,
The Witch, with much ceremony, fills the basin. As FAUST is about to raise it to his lips, it emits a clear flame.
MEPHISTOPHELES. Quick! quickly down with it!—no breathing time allowed! […] And does a lambent flame prevent thee quaff?

Sir Edward suddenly started from his chair; his thin and generally bending form became erect and stately, and his sunken eyes emitted a stream of lambent fire, as he exclaimed:—....

1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 288:

the lambent glowing light of the midnight sun. (I dislike that word lambent, but it must be employed.) A soft, benevolent radiance, you might say, playing upon the emerald green, the virgin swales of grass and moss and heather and Swede heads

1984, Edward Abbey, Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside, page 192:

Back in 2010 those comparisons seemed absurd: how could the writer-director of classy-but-overthought superhero movies, as well as middling oddities such as The Prestige, be seriously thought of in the same bracket as the lambent mind behind Dr Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon?

2017 July 19, Andrew Pulver, “With Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan has finally hit the heights of Kubrick”, in The Guardian:


longa

longæ (plural)
longe (plural)
longas (plural)

(music) A musical note equal to two or three breves, i.e. four or six whole notes.


shut up

en-verb

shut up (third-person singular simple present shuts up, present participle shutting up, simple past and past participle shut up)

shuts up (present singular third-person)
shutting up (participle present)
shut up (participle past)
shut up (past)

release

antonym(s) of “put (someone) in a secure enclosed place”

You are talking so loud that I can't hear the music – would you mind shutting up?

He was blathering on about something, but I managed to shut him up.

Shut up!

This is a quote from the letter: "Went to the Senate yesterday and you should have seen the carrying on they did. I could hardly get them to shut up so I could speak, and they did the same thing after I had finished. Some said the Senate never did carry on so over any president or anybody else."

1965, Harry S. Truman, 0:20 from the start, in MP2002-442 Former President Truman Discusses Problems Faced During the Potsdam Conference, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

Shut up and sleep with me / Come on, why don't you sleep with me?

1995, “Shut Up (And Sleep With Me)”, in Golden Boy, performed by Sin With Sebastian:

He really doesn't know when to shut up and leave it to those at the heart of the negotiations, who fully understand and appreciate all the nuances, to try and hammer out a deal.

2022 August 10, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Striking a fair balance”, in RAIL, number 963, page 3:

(ergative, derogatory, often imperative) Of a person, to stop talking or (of a person or thing) making noise.

затварям

enclose (a person, animal or thing) in a room or other place so that it cannot leave

карам да замълчи

transitive: to stop (a person) from talking or (a person or thing) from making noise

млъквам

intransitive: to stop talking or making noise

hush

to stop (a person) from talking or (a person or thing) making noise


relative

[ˈɹɛl.ə.ɾɪv]

From Middle French relatif, from Late Latin relātīvus, from Latin relātus, perfect passive participle of referō (“to carry back, to ascribe”), from re- (“again”) + ferō (“to bear or carry”).

نِسْبِيّ

conditional; depending on something else

(music) Having the same key but differing in being major or minor.


immolate

immolate (third-person singular simple present immolates, present participle immolating, simple past and past participle immolated)

immolates (present singular third-person)
immolating (participle present)
immolated (participle past)
immolated (past)

Borrowed from Latin immolō (“I sacrifice”) (past participle immolātus).

She imparted these stories gradually to Miss Crawley; gave her the whole benefit of them; felt it to be her bounden duty as a Christian woman and mother of a family to do so; had not the smallest remorse or compunction for the victim whom her tongue was immolating; nay, very likely thought her act was quite meritorious, and plumed herself upon her resolute manner of performing it.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 19, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:


breve

From Middle English breve, variant of bref, from Old French brieve, breve (feminine form of brief, bref), from Latin brevis (“short”).

(music) A double whole note; a note twice as long as a semibreve.


cult

Derived from French culte, from Latin cultus (“care, adoration; cult”), from colō (“cultivate; protect”).

(neologism, music) Alternative form of kvlt.


hardcore

en-adj

hardcore (comparative more hardcore, superlative most hardcore)

more hardcore (comparative)
most hardcore (superlative)

From hard + core: hard to the core; 1936 (n.); 1951 (adj.)

(music) Faster or more intense than the regular style.

duro

faster or more intense than the regular style


hardcore

→ German: Hardcore

Russian: хардко́р m (xardkór)

Several music genres, including:
Outlaw country.


quartette

Another musical memory of the stationmaster was his Joint Railway Male Voice Quartette, comprising three local stationmasters and a booking clerk, whose items were very acceptable at social events. One thing that amused me was that the quartette included a Mr. Dove and a Mr. Crowe; and it was Mr. Dove, and not the latter, who took the bass parts.

1952 March, R. S. McNaught, “Joint Line Memories”, in Railway Magazine, page 195:


quintette

Alternative spelling of quintet A composition for five voices or instruments; also, the set of five persons who sing or play five-part music.


breakdown

en-noun

breakdown (countable and uncountable, plural breakdowns)

sınma

failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature

And now it's time for a breakdown.

1992 March 11, James Brown, Thomas McElroy, Denzil Foster, John Starks, Fred Wesley (lyrics and music), “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, in Funky Divas, performed by En Vogue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: EastWest Records, →OCLC:

The fired-up foursome [Trial] takes itself very seriously, singing politically charged lyrics, which, in the tradition of Strife and Damnation AD, are strategically placed in the middle of slamming, moshable breakdowns.

1999 August 16, Amy Sciarretto, “Loud Rock”, in Glen Sansone, editor, CMJ New Music Report, volume 59, number 9 (number 631 overall), Great Neck, N.Y.: College Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28, column 2:

Izzy [Stradlin] lays down some big chords while Slash plays the song's banjo breakdown of a theme.

2008 August, Stephen Davis, “Victory or Death”, in Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses, New York, N.Y.: Gotham Books, →ISBN, page 102:

A part of a piece of music or a song which differs from the other parts in that it features improvisation or is stripped down (for example, played by fewer instruments or a solo performer).

breikki

percussion break
percussion break#English

Synonym of percussion break (“a percussion-focused segment of a song, chosen by a hip-hop DJ to manipulate through cutting, mixing, and other techniques in order to create rhythmic music”)

percussion break

Without a change of countenance, as if he were deaf to her entreaties and threats, he tuned up the banjo, and played a breakdown.

1898, Charles Garvice, chapter I, in Nell, of Shorne Mills; or, One Heart’s Burden, [S.l.]: Good Press, published 2019:

The banjo built up to breakdown speed and then took a sidestep into another register, an oddly complex net of notes which stretched out for a time and finally stopped on a full rest.

1989, Madison Smartt Bell, chapter 21, in Soldier’s Joy, New York, N.Y.: Ticknor & Fields, →ISBN, part II (Follow Me Down (1970–71)), page 186:

Her mother had not only gotten knocked up and lost her man when Sunset was thirteen, she soon took up with a traveling shoe salesman who played the banjo, wandered away with him and his shoes, probably to the sound of a banjo breakdown, leaving a note that read: "Sorry, Sunset, I got to go. Mama loves you. I left you a good pair of shoes in there on the kitchen table. They shine up easy."

2004, Joe R[ichard] Lansdale, chapter 8, in Sunset and Sawdust (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 65:

The grown-ups were lolling around on the porch and in the yard, finger snapping and foot tapping while Samuel played "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" on his five-string banjo.

2011, Jenny Wingfield, chapter 12, in The Homecoming of Samuel Lake […], trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 2012, →ISBN, page 98:

(music) A piece of music played for such a dance, especially a rapid bluegrass tune featuring a five-string banjo.


furniture

furniture (usually uncountable, plural furnitures)

From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).


azured

en-adj

azured (comparative more azured, superlative most azured)

more azured (comparative)
most azured (superlative)

azure:


pick

From Middle English piken, picken, pikken, from Old English *piccian, *pīcian (attested in pīcung (“a pricking”)), and pīcan, pȳcan (“to pick, prick, pluck”), both from Proto-West Germanic *pikkōn, from Proto-Germanic *pikkōną (“to pick, peck, prick, knock”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bu- (“to make a dull, hollow sound”). Doublet of pitch and peck.
Cognate with Dutch pikken (“to pick”), German picken (“to pick, peck”), Old Norse pikka, pjakka (whence Icelandic pikka (“to pick, prick”), Swedish picka (“to pick, peck”)).

inh

(music) A tool used for strumming the strings of a guitar; a plectrum.


pick

en-verb

pick (third-person singular simple present picks, present participle picking, simple past and past participle picked)

picks (present singular third-person)
picking (participle present)
picked (participle past)
picked (past)

dərmək

to remove a fruit or plant for consumption

whakatete

to pick a fight or argument with someone

He picked a tune on his banjo.

(music) To pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument or to play such an instrument.

zupfen

music: to pluck the individual strings of a musical instrument


axeman

Ex-Aerosmith axeman Joe Perry has finished recording his first solo effort, "I've Got the Rock 'n' Rolls Again."

1981 June 18, Kurt Loder, “Rolling Stone”, in Anchorage Daily News / King Features Syndicate, page G6:

(informal, music) A musician who plays a guitar or saxophone.


pow

Whap, Biff, Ooooof, Sock, Pow, Zok! Batman is back. Gotham City is again leaving its law and order in the hands of a man who wears plastic underpants over his tights.

1989 June 5, The Canberra Times, Australia Captial Territory, page 10, column 2:

The sound of a violent impact, such as a punch.

Pow, they took off.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 71:


ode

From Middle French ode, from Late Latin ōda, from Ancient Greek ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”). Doublet of Aoede.

write an ode to someone

[title]

A short poetical composition proper to be set to music or sung; a lyric poem; especially, now, a poem characterized by sustained noble sentiment and appropriate dignity of style.


din

en-noun

din (countable and uncountable, plural dins)

From Middle English dynne, dyne, dyn, from Old English dyne, from Proto-West Germanic *duni, from Proto-Germanic *duniz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰún-is, from *dʰwen- (“to make a noise”).
Cognate with English tone, Sanskrit धुनि (dhúni, “sounding”), ध्वनति (dhvánati, “to make a noise, to roar”), Old Norse dynr, Norwegian Nynorsk dynja, Swedish dån, dön.

Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

[B]red to war, / He knew the battle’s din afar, / And joyed to hear it swell.

1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Fifth. The Court.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza IV, page 245:

How often, hither wandering down,
My Arthur found your shadows fair,
And shook to all the liberal air
The dust and din and steam of town:

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto LXXXVII, page 129:

The patter of feet, and clatter of strap and swivel, seemed to swell into a bewildering din, but they were almost upon the fielato offices, where the carretera entered the town, before a rifle flashed.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

So many faces Clive had never seen by daylight, and looking terrible, like cadavers jerked upright to welcome the newly dead. Invigorated by this jolt of misanthropy, he moved sleekly through the din, ignored his name when it was called, withdrew his elbow when it was plucked [...]

1998, Ian McEwan, Amsterdam, New York: Anchor, published 1999, Part 1, Chapter 1, pp. 9-10:

England certainly made a mockery of the claim that they might somehow be intimidated by the Glasgow din. Celtic Park was a loud, seething pit of bias.

2014 November 18, Daniel Taylor, “England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard”, in The Guardian:

A loud noise; a cacophony or loud commotion.


din

en-verb

din (third-person singular simple present dins, present participle dinning, simple past and past participle dinned)

dins (present singular third-person)
dinning (participle present)
dinned (participle past)
dinned (past)

From Middle English dynnen, from Old English dynnan, from Proto-Germanic *dunjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwen- (“to make a noise”).

der

1820, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 2, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Volume 2, p. 21,
For, spite of rumbling of the wheels,
A welcome greeting he can hear;—
It is a fiddle in its glee
Dinning from the CHERRY TREE!

My confused senses received a dull roar of pounding feet and dinning voices as the herald of victory.

1920, Zane Grey, “The Rube’s Pennant”, in The Redheaded Outfield and Other Baseball Stories, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 68:

Should she speak of having been at the fire herself—or should she not? The question dinned in her brain so loudly that she could hardly hear what her companion was saying […]

1924, Edith Wharton, chapter 4, in Old New York: New Year’s Day (The ’Seventies), New York: D. Appleton & Co., pages 62–63:

(intransitive) To make a din, to resound.

The room was dinning with the strains of an invisible orchestra and the vocal uproar […]

1914, Rex Beach, chapter 3, in The Auction Block, New York: Harper & Bros., page 33:

(intransitive) (of a place) To be filled with sound, to resound.

1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder: or Political Essays, London: D. Midwinter & J. Tonson, No. 8, 16 January, 1716, pp. 45-46,
She ought in such Cases to exert the Authority of the Curtain Lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious Disposition, to tame him, as they do Birds of Prey, by dinning him in the Ears all Night long.

Oh ye! whose ears are dinn’d with uproar rude,
Or fed too much with cloying melody,—
Sit ye near some old cavern’s mouth, and brood
Until ye start, as if the sea-nymphs quired!

1817, John Keats, “On the Sea”, in Richard Monckton Milnes, editor, Life, Letters, and Literary Remains, of John Keats, volume 2, London: Edward Moxon, published 1848, page 291:

No alarm-clock dinned her to get up but the morning light woke her, pouring through the uncurtained glass.

1938, Graham Greene, chapter 1, in Brighton Rock, New York: Vintage, published 2002:

(transitive) To assail (a person, the ears) with loud noise.

This has been often dinned in my Ears.

1724, The Hibernian Patriot: Being a Collection of the Drapier’s Letters to the People of Ireland concerning Mr. Wood’s Brass Half-Pence, London: Jonathan Swift, published 1730, Letter 2, p. 61:

“Mamma, do you forget that I have promised to marry Roger Hamley?” said Cynthia quietly.
“No! of course I don’t—how can I, with Molly always dinning the word ‘engagement’ into my ears? […]”

1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, chapter 50, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, →OCLC:

By careful early conditioning, by games and cold water, by the rubbish that was dinned into them at school and in the Spies and the Youth League, by lectures, parades, songs, slogans, and martial music, the natural feeling had been driven out of them.

1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 6, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001:

His mother had dinned The Whole Duty of Man into him in early childhood.

2004, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, page 183:

(transitive) To repeat continuously, as though to the point of deafening or exhausting somebody.


agitato

(music) A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played in a restless agitated style.


agitato

(music) Played in a restless agitated style.


agitato

(music) Describing a passage having this mark.


onset

General American, Midland US, Southern US

From on- + set. Compare Old English onsettan (“to impose; oppress, bear down”).

cog

(acoustics) The beginning of a musical note or other sound, in which the amplitude rises from zero to an initial peak.


dolce

From Italian dolce. Doublet of douce, doux, and dulce.


rote

From Middle English rote, from Old French rote, probably of German origin; compare Middle High German rotte, and English crowd (“a kind of violin”).

extracting mistuned dirges from their harps, crowds, and rotes

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

(music) A kind of guitar, the notes of which were produced by a small wheel or wheel-like arrangement; an instrument similar to the hurdy-gurdy.


phase

From New Latin phasis, from Ancient Greek φάσις (phásis, “an appearance”), from φάω (pháō, “to shine”); compare phantasm and see face.

vaihe

rugby union: period of play between breakdowns

(music) A distortion caused by a difference in the speed of propagation for different frequencies


gamut

1520s, original sense “lowest note of musical scale”, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma (“Greek letter, corresponding to the musical note G”) + ut (“first solfège syllable, now replaced by do”). In modern terms, “G do” – the first note of the G scale. Meaning later extended to mean all the notes of a scale, and then more generally any complete range.

(music) All the notes in a musical scale.


avail

en-noun

avail (countable and uncountable, plural avails)

From Middle English availen (“to be of use”), from Old French a (“to”) + vail from valoir (“to be worth”), from Latin valere (“to be worthy, strong”).

Total crude oil avails (production plus purchases) of even highly "self-sufficient" refiners are far greater than their reported refinery inputs.

1967, Interstate Compact on Oil and Gas (10th Extension), page 95:

(oil industry) A readily available stock of oil.


forget-me-not

Calque of Middle French ne m'oubliez mie or German Vergissmeinnicht.

calque

forget-me-not:

A light tint of blue, the color of the flower.


patch

From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten. Germanic cognates would then include Middle English plecke, dialectal English pleck (“plot of ground, patch”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, piece, patch”), Dutch plek (“spot, place, stain, patch”), Dutch plak (“piece, slab”), Swedish plagg (“garment”), Faroese plagg (“cloth, rag”).
Or, possibly a variant of Old French pieche, dialectal variant of piece (“piece”). Compare also Old Occitan petaç (“patch”).

tilkku

small piece of material used to clean a gun barrel

flejtuch

piece of greased cloth used to fit a rifle ball to the bore

A synthesizer comes with controls to store patches and edit them. Some high-end synthesizers even have floppy disks for additional patch storage.

1988 November 28, “MIDI: Computers and Music”, in U-M Computing News, volume 3, number 21, The University of Michigan Computing Center, page 11:

(music) A sound setting for a musical synthesizer (originally selected by means of a patch cable).


positive

en-adj

positive (comparative more positive, superlative most positive)

more positive (comparative)
most positive (superlative)

From Old French positif, from Latin positivus, from the past participle stem of ponere (“to place”). Compare posit.

Not to conſent to the Enacting of ſuch a Law, which has no view beſide to general Good, unleſs another Law ſhall at the ſame time paſs, with no other view but that of advancing the Power of one Party alone; What is this but to claim a positive Voice as well as a negative?

1701, [Jonathan Swift], “Chapter I”, in A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome, with the Consequences They Had upon Both Those States, London: […] John Nutt […], →OCLC, page 11:

Characterized by constructiveness or influence for the better.

A cation is a positive ion as it has more protons than electrons.

(physics) Having more protons than electrons.

مُوجَب

physics: having more protons than electrons

‘Better’ is an irregular comparative of the positive form ‘good’.

(grammar) Describing the primary sense of an adjective, adverb or noun; not comparative, superlative, augmentative nor diminutive.


positive

Something having a positive value in physics, such as an electric charge.


blue note

(idiomatic, music) The flatted 5th scale degree in the blues scale, also known as the flat five.

(idiomatic, music) Any of the notes that produce the characteristic clashes with the underlying harmony associated with blues music. The flatted third, flatted fifth and flatted seventh can all be considered blue notes when played over major or dominant chord progressions, while only the flatted fifth will clash with minor chord progressions.


piper

From Middle English piper, pipere; equivalent to pipe + -er. Piecewise doublet of fifer.

A common European gurnard (Trigla lyra), having a large head, with prominent nasal projection, and with large, sharp, opercular spines.


fade

From Middle English fade, vad, vade (“faded, pale, withered, weak”), from Middle Dutch vade (“weak, faint, limp”), from Old French fade (“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus (“insipid”).

(music, cinematography) A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song).


maestro

Borrowed from Italian maestro, from Latin magister (“master”). Doublet of magister, master, and meister.

doublet

You've never been on a ride like this before; with a producer who can rap and control the maestro.

1992, “Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang”, in Andre R. Young, Tracy Curry, Calvin Broadus, Leon Haywood (lyrics), Andre R. Young (music), The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre (featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg), Death Row Records:

(chiefly music) A master in some art, especially a composer or conductor.


parch

en-verb

parch (third-person singular simple present parches, present participle parching, simple past and past participle parched)

parches (present singular third-person)
parching (participle present)
parched (participle past)
parched (past)

From Middle English parchen, paarchen (“to parch; dry; roast”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of Middle English perchen (“to roast”).

The sun today could parch cement.

(transitive) To burn the surface of, to scorch.


pad

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on", probably from Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.

unk

probably

(music) A synthesizer instrument sound used for sustained background sounds.


bake

en-verb

bake (third-person singular simple present bakes, present participle baking, simple past baked or (dialectal) book, past participle baked or (dialectal) baken)

bakes (present singular third-person)
baking (participle present)
baked (past)
book (dialectal past)
baked (participle past)
baken (dialectal participle past)

From Middle English baken, from Old English bacan (“to bake”), from Proto-West Germanic *bakan, from Proto-Germanic *bakaną (“to bake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₃g- (“to roast, bake”).
Cognate with West Frisian bakke (“to bake”), Dutch bakken (“to bake”), Low German backen (“to bake”), German backen (“to bake”), Norwegian Bokmål bake (“to bake”), Danish bage (“to bake”), Swedish baka (“to bake”), Ancient Greek φώγω (phṓgō, “roast”, verb).

paska

to make baked goods or something into bread

(computer graphics, transitive) To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance.


ET

en-noun

ET (countable and uncountable, plural ETs)

(music, countable) Initialism of escape tone.


rufous

rufous (countable and uncountable, plural rufouses)

Partners in Flight — a conservation group that tracks several species of birds, including hummingbirds — estimates that the rufous population is currently 62% smaller than it was in 1966. […] Rufouses are adapting, however, and becoming more willing to use urban feeders and gardens.

2021, Daniel I. Stein, Attracting Hummingbirds:

rufous hummingbird
rufous hummingbird#English

(countable) Short for rufous hummingbird.


gas station

(Canada, US, New Zealand, Philippines) filling station / petrol station; an establishment which sells gasoline (petrol) and often also diesel

pompstasie

an establishment which sells gasoline to pump directly into a car


chauffeur

(firefighting) The driver of a fire truck.


baggy

en-adj

baggy (comparative baggier, superlative baggiest)

baggier (comparative)
baggiest (superlative)

→ French: baggy

Pop historian Jon Savage listens to the best of the Stone Roses and their contemporaries – from Baby Ford to the Sabres of Paradise – and creates the perfect set of baggy playlists

2011 October 18, Jon Savage, “Stone Roses reunion: three baggy playlists”, in The Guardian:

The Birmingham band – now a five-piece after multi-instrumentalist James Balmont joined them – have ditched the loose and baggy guitar pop of 2013’s Where the Heaven Are We? in favour of psych-pop that contorts itself into pulsing Balearic acid house and motorik rhythms.

2015 October 1, Tshepo Mokoena, “Swim Deep: Mothers review – baggy indie kids embrace psych-pop”, in The Guardian:

(music) Of or relating to a British music genre of the 1980s and 1990s, influenced by Madchester and psychedelia and associated with baggy clothing.


corno

From Italian corno, from Latin cornu (“horn”). Doublet of corn and cornu.


beep

en-verb

beep (third-person singular simple present beeps, present participle beeping, simple past and past participle beeped)

beeps (present singular third-person)
beeping (participle present)
beeped (participle past)
beeped (past)

The motorists in the traffic jam were getting more and more frustrated and started beeping their horns.

(transitive) To sound (something that makes a beep).


jazz

en-noun

jazz (usually uncountable, plural jazzes)

→ Arabic: جَاز (jāz)

→ Armenian: ջազ (ǰaz)

→ Bulgarian: джаз (džaz)

→ Catalan: jazz, džez

→ Czech: jazz

→ Danish: jazz

→ Dutch: jazz

→ Esperanto: ĵazo

→ Estonian: džäss

→ Faroese: djassur

→ Finnish: jazz, jatsi

→ French: jazz

→ Georgian: ჯაზი (ǯazi)

→ German: Jazz

→ Greek: τζαζ (tzaz)

desc

→ Hebrew: ג׳ז, ג׳אז

→ Hebrew: ג׳ז, ג׳אז

→ Hungarian: dzsessz, jazz

→ Icelandic: djass, jass

→ Italian: jazz

→ Japanese: ジャズ (jazu)

→ Korean: 재즈 (jaejeu)

→ Latvian: džezs

→ Lithuanian: džiazas

→ Macedonian: џез (džez)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: jazz

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: jazz

→ Persian: جاز

→ Polish: jazz, dżez

→ Portuguese: jazz

→ Romanian: jazz

→ Russian: джаз (džaz)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: џе̏з

Latin script: džȅz

→ Slovak: džez

→ Slovene: džẹ̑z

→ Spanish: jazz

→ Swedish: jazz

→ Tagalog: dyas

→ Thai: แจ๊ส (jɛ́ɛt)

→ Turkish: caz

→ Ukrainian: джаз (džaz)

→ Yiddish: דזשאַז (dzhaz)

Unknown. First attested around 1912 in a discussion of baseball; attested in reference to music around 1915. Numerous references suggest that the term may be connected to jasm and jism.

You dare to bring your jazz songs into my house!

1927, Samson Raphaelson, Alfred A. Cohn, The Jazz Singer, spoken by Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson):

You all look out now, here I come, everybody step aside, I’m gonna show you where from! I'm gonna blow in this horn and make you know that jazz is the king and let it be so!

1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Not too Far Tangent”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 30:

You see, the kids, they listen to the rap music which gives them the brain damage. With their hippin', and the hoppin', and the bippin', and the boppin', so they don't know what the jazz…is all about! You see, jazz is like the Jello Pudding Pop—no, actually, it's more like Kodak film—no, actually, jazz is like the New Coke: it'll be around forever, heh heh.

1995, Mike Reiss, Al Jean, “'Round Springfield”, in The Simpsons, season 6, episode 22, spoken by Bill Cosby:

(music) A musical art form rooted in West African cultural and musical expression and in the African American blues tradition, with diverse influences over time, commonly characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation.


melodious

en-adj

melodious (comparative more melodious, superlative most melodious)

more melodious (comparative)
most melodious (superlative)

From Old French melodios; equivalent to melody + -ous.

Tremulous on the bladed graſs ſhone bright the pearly drops, like an aſſembly of ſparkling ſtars dancing on the plains of the zodiac; vocal was every bending ſpray, every reed was inſpired, each warbling throat ſeemed to emulate the melodious voice of the bird of a thouſand ſongs.

1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:

A lovely crisp exhaust: a feeling of almost unlimited power combined with complete freedom of running: and, to crown it all, a most melodious and wholly American chime whistle—these were my immediate impressions as we stormed rapidly out of Göttingen, intent on winning back some of the lost time.

1960 October, P. Ransome-Wallis, “Modern motive power of the German Federal Railway: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 611:

Patinkin’s melodious voice is a natural fit for animation, and he breathes just the right type of upper-crust life into Hugh in 22 short minutes.

2013 October 13, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Lisa’s Wedding” (season six, episode 19; originally aired 3/19/1995)”, in The Onion AV Club:

Having a pleasant melody or sound; tuneful.


whack

Uncertain. Originally Scottish; probably onomatopoeic, but compare Middle English thakken < Old English þaccian (whence Modern thwack by conflation with whack).

Saka was a threat from the first whistle; Ukraine rightly wary of him and dishing out the usual whacks.

March 26 2023, David Hytner, “Kane and Bukayo Saka combine against Ukraine for England’s perfect Euros start”, in The Guardian:

(obsolete) A whack-up: a division of an amount into separate whacks, a divvying up.


kitchen

→ Bole: kicin

→ Hausa: kicin

→ Hindi: किचन (kican)

→ Fiji Hindi: kichin

desc

→ Japanese: キッチン (kitchin), キチン (kichin)

→ Saanich: kəčən

→ Sotho: kitjhine

→ Urdu: کچن (kicin)

→ Xhosa: ikhitshi

→ Zulu: ikhishi

From Middle English kychyn, kytchen, kichene, küchen, from Old English cyċen, cyċene, from Proto-West Germanic *kukinā, a borrowing from Late Latin cocīna, from earlier coquīna (“kitchen; cuisine”), from coquō (“to cook”), from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”).
In other languages, the cognate term often refers both to the room and the type of cooking. In English, the distinction is generally made via the etymological twins kitchen (“room”) (Latin via Germanic) and cuisine (“type of cooking”) (Latin via French).

der

if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen

For obvious reasons the percussion is normally arranged along the back of the platform, whether centrally or to one side, and sometimes also in two tiers, the heavy, noisier instruments behind, and the pitched, agile instruments such as vibraphone, marimba, etc. in front. An outstanding exception, however, exists in Roberto Gerhard's Epithalamion where the composer expressly desired that the all-important kitchen department be spread out in front of the strings and hence nearest the audience.

1981, Norman Del Mar, Anatomy of the Orchestra:

(music) The percussion section of an orchestra.


grace note

/ˈɡɹeɪs nəʊt/

From grace (“elegant movement; poise or balance; charming, pleasing qualities”) + note.

There is a manner of gracing the notes or accents in reading, as in singing, but which is always at pleasure. This grace note in music is called appoggiatura, that is, supporter, insinuator. As the quantities of these little notes in music are always taken out of the next note that follows, so it is in speech. Instead of a plain acute accent, thus /, we may use, which corresponds exactly with the small musical grace note, a little circumflex grave-accute, thus ⎝; or acute-grave, thus ⎞; [...]

1821, James Chapman, chapter II, in The Original Rhythmical Grammar of the English Language: Or, The Art of Reading and Speaking, on the Principles of the Music of Speech, Edinburgh: Printed for James Robertson, […], →OCLC, page 30:

Grace notes, as their name shows, though not absolutely essential to melody, are employed as embellishments, and also prevent too great uniformity. There are several kinds; the small note, or Appoggiatura, the Trill, and the Turn. An Appoggiatura is a grace note placed above or below a principal note, and is generally half the value of that note; there are instances, however, when its value is greater. [...] A Turn is composed of three grace notes placed before or after a principal note.

1851, [Friedrich] Schneider, “The Elements of Music”, in Schneider’s Practical Organ School, Containing All Necessary Instructions in Fingering, Management of Stops, Pedals, etc., […], Boston, Mass.: Published by Oliver Ditson & Company, […], →OCLC, page 21, column 1:

Most of these embellishments are played very quickly, in order that the note, before which they are placed, and to which they are added as grace notes, may lose but little of its value. It is often difficult to guess from which note (whether the preceding or succeeding) the time requisite for the execution of the grace note is to be taken.

1852, Louis Spohr, “On Graces, Ornaments, or Embellishments”, in U[reli] C[orelli] Hill, editor, Spohr’s Grand Violin School: Newly Revised, from the Latest German and English Editions, Boston, Mass.: Published by Oliver Ditson, […]; C. C. Clapp & Co., […]; New York, N.Y.: J. E. Gould & Co., →OCLC, page 136:

There are an infinite number of fingering combinations that can be used to play grace notes, and they are all dependent on both the hand position you are playing in and the combination of notes preceding the grace note(s).

2011, Michel Merhej Baklouk, with Nicole LeCorgne, “Unit 1 – Basic Technique Building”, in Classical Riqq Technique, Pacific, Mo.: Bill’s Music Shelf, →ISBN; republished [U.S.A.]: Mel Bay Publications, 2018, →ISBN, part II (Lessons), page 54:

(music) A musical note, indicated on a score in smaller type with or without a slash through it, played to ornament the melody rather than as part of it. Its note value does not count as part of the total time value of the measure it appears in.

forşlaq

musical note played to ornament the melody


eaw

From the sound. An early print use was in a 1988 instruction booklet for the video game Zelda II; probably used earlier.


book burning

en-noun

book burning (countable and uncountable, plural book burnings)

(literally) A mass burning of books, intended as a form of political and/or religious censorship.

Exhuming McCarthy (meet me at the book burning, meet me at the book burning)

1987, “Exhuming McCarthy”, in Document (R.E.M. No. 5), performed by R.E.M.:

(by extension, idiomatic) Any mass destruction, removal, or recalling of books, motion pictures, broadcasts, or electronic works as a form of censorship, especially motivated by religious or political objections to the material.


noodle

en-verb

noodle (third-person singular simple present noodles, present participle noodling, simple past and past participle noodled)

noodles (present singular third-person)
noodling (participle present)
noodled (participle past)
noodled (past)

Possibly either:
* a blend of Shetland Scots nune (“to sing softly, croon, hum”) (from Danish nynne, Norwegian nuna, nynna (“to hum; to sing”), originally imitative) + English doodle (“to play the bagpipes”) (chiefly Scotland); or
* from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse *grynta, from Proto-Germanic *grunnatjaną (“to grunt”), a frequentative of Proto-Germanic *grunnōną (“to grunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrun- (“to shout”) (and thus a doublet of grunt).

der

(transitive, intransitive, Shetland, singing) To hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume.

laulaa möristen

to hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume


noodle

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly derived:
* from noodle (“to hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume”) (Shetland) (see etymology 3); or
* from German nudeln (“to make music or sing listlessly; to make music or sing at a low pitch or volume, or in an improvisatory manner”) (Leipzig), apparently from Nudel (“piece of pasta, noodle”) (see etymology 1) + -n (a variant of -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs)).
The word was probably also influenced by doodle (“to draw or scribble aimlessly”, verb).
The noun is probably derived from the verb, though the verb is first attested later. The noun was probably also influenced by doodle (“small mindless sketch”, noun).

Coordinate term: jazzify

(chiefly jazz) To play (a musical instrument or passage of music) or to sing (a passage of music) in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play (a series of ornamental notes) on an instrument.

rimputtaa

to play (a musical instrument or passage of music) or to sing (a passage of music) in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; to play (a series of ornamental notes) on an instrument

Coordinate term: jam

He has been noodling with that trumpet all afternoon, and every bit of it sounds awful.

[A]udible here and there / in the half-dark, members of an avian orchestra / are already softly noodling, limbering up for / an overture at sunrise, […]

1965, W[ystan] H[ugh] Auden, “Thanksgiving for a Habitat. The Cave of Nakedness (for Louis and Emmie Kronenberger).”, in About the House, New York, N.Y.; Toronto, Ont.: Random House, →OCLC, page 34:

We’ve learned the prospective danger of Macca [Paul McCartney] noodling around in the studio from McCartney III’s predecessors—“Wonderful Christmastime” came out of the McCartney II sessions, after all.

2020 November 9, Gwen Ihnat, “With McCartney III, Paul McCartney Offers Lessons from a Legendary Life”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2022-05-16:

(chiefly jazz) To play a musical instrument or to sing in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play a series of ornamental notes on an instrument.

rimputella

to play a musical instrument or to sing in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; to play a series of ornamental notes on an instrument


noodle

pasta - for Italian noodles and noodle dishes

(chiefly jazz) An improvised passage of music played on an instrument; also, a series of ornamental notes played on an instrument; a trill.


septet

The Lindsey Septet performs at Carnegie Hall this evening.

A group of seven, particularly
(music) A group of seven musicians.

A group of seven, particularly
A group of seven musicians.

[W]hoso rhymes a sonnet pays a tax, / Who paints a landscape dips brush at his cost, / Who scores a septett true for strings and wind / Mulcted must be—else how should I impose / Properly, attitudinize aright, / Did such conflicting claims as these divert / Hohenstiel-Schwangau from observing me?

1871 December, Robert Browning, Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society, London: Smith, Elder and Co., →OCLC, page 124:

(music) A composition for a group of seven musicians.

szeptett

musical composition for seven instruments or seven voices


oblique

en-adj

oblique (comparative obliquer, superlative obliquest)

obliquer (comparative)
obliquest (superlative)

From Middle French oblique, from Latin oblīquus (also spelled oblīcus) (“slanting, sideways, indirect, envious”).

uder

In passing from the minor third to unison, the motion ought to be oblique, but from the major third to unison the motion ought to be similar

1837, Allan Cunningham, “Music”, in The Popular Encyclopedia, page 109:

(music) Employing oblique motion, motion or progression in which one part (voice) stays on the same note while another ascends or descends.


pastoral

/ˌpæsˈtɔːɹəl/

From Middle French, Old French pastoral, from Latin pāstōrālis, from pāstor (“shepherd”), + adjective suffix -ālis.

(music) A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life.


pes

From Latin pēs (“foot”). Doublet of foot, pie (“Spanish unit of length”), and pous.

doublet

(music) a neume representing two notes ascending


hype man

Hammer and the Posse, a group consisting of four dancers, two DJs and one hype man (“He’s the guy who pumps the crowd up,” Hammer explained), hope to win over rap fans.

1988 April 3, Lee Hildebrand, “M.C. Hammer Nails Down A Royal Reputation”, in San Francisco Chronicle, page 42:

Puff is up on stage with Biggie rappin’ almost as much as Biggie. He’s not just the hype man on stage goin’ Yea Yea, he’s rappin’ whole verses.

1995 August 30, Richard Payton, “Re: Suge Vs Puffy”, in rec.music.hip-hop (Usenet):

Hype men, for those of you unfamiliar with the lingo, are the fellas you see at rap shows who stand next to MCs and bellow certain words along with the rap to add emphasis.

2004 May 26, Jordan Harper, “I Love a Parade: Radar Station hitches a ride with great big rappers”, in Riverfront Times, St. Louis, Mo.:

Mills appeared first, performing with a hype man (someone who exorts the crowd and sings along with key lines) and a disk jockey.

2004 August 9, The New Yorker, page 100:

A hip-hop performer responsible for backup rapping and singing and increasing an audience’s excitement with call-and-response chants.


mute

From Middle English muet, from Anglo-Norman muet, moet, Middle French muet, from mu (“dumb, mute”) + -et, remodelled after Latin mūtus.

(music) An object for dulling the sound of an instrument, especially a brass instrument, or damper for pianoforte; a sordine.


mute

en-verb

mute (third-person singular simple present mutes, present participle muting, simple past and past participle muted)

mutes (present singular third-person)
muting (participle present)
muted (participle past)
muted (past)


loden

The first thing that caught my eye on this excursion was the number of grey, brown and green loden coats and hats, and how well and sensibly everyone was dressed in general, how remarkably solid were the shoes of the pedestrians of Nuremberg.

2011 [2001], Anthea Bell, transl., Austerlitz, Penguin, translation of original by W. G. Sebald, page 314:

A thick waterproof cloth used for garments.

loden:

A dark green colour, like that of loden cloth.


loden

en-adj

loden (comparative more loden, superlative most loden)

more loden (comparative)
most loden (superlative)

Of a dark green colour, like that of loden cloth.


swish

en-noun

swish (countable and uncountable, plural swishes)

A short rustling, hissing or whistling sound, often made by friction.

As she trotted down the white path, each swish of her tail sent petals dancing through the air, falling where the bride would walk.

2011, A. C. August, The Highway Cross, page 116:

A hissing, sweeping movement through the air, as of an animal's tail.


swish

"Just like parade it had been a minute before then stumble, bang, swish! Wiped out!" he said.

1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 84:

A hissing or whistling sound of something travelling quickly through the air.


unburnt

en-adj

unburnt (comparative more unburnt, superlative most unburnt)

more unburnt (comparative)
most unburnt (superlative)


Dr

(music, Japan) Abbreviation of drums (of a rock band)


venue

From Middle English venu, from Old French venue, the feminine singular past participle of the verb venir (to come). Doublet of veny.

A theater, auditorium, arena, or other area designated for sporting or entertainment events.

The twelve men who are to try the cause must be of the same venue where the demand is made.

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

(law) A neighborhood or near place; the place or county in which anything is alleged to have happened; also, the place where an action is laid, or the district from which a jury comes.

escena f del crim

legal: place in which anything is alleged to have happened

With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game. Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in Telegraph:

(sports) A stadium or similar building in which a sporting competition is held.

The metalworking forum is not the appropriate venue for this discussion about politics.

(by extension) The place where something happens.

local

place, especially the one where a given event is to happen


chase

en-noun

chase (countable and uncountable, plural chases)

From Middle English chacen, from Anglo-Norman chacer, Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Compare French chasser (“to hunt”, “to chase”), Spanish cazar (“to hunt”), Portuguese caçar (“to hunt”)
, see Norwegian skysse (“to hunt”).
Doublet of catch and related to capture.
Displaced native Old English ōht, ēhtnes, and wāþ. Broadly overtook Old English huntaþ.

(music) A series of brief improvised jazz solos by a number of musicians taking turns.


range

Japanese: レンジ (renji)

Korean: 레인지 (reinji)

From Middle English rengen, from Old French rengier (“to range, to rank, to order,”), from the noun renc, reng, ranc, rang (“a rank, row”), from Frankish *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring, circle, curve”).

der

(music) The scale of all the tones a voice or an instrument can produce.


yell

From Middle English ȝellen, yellen, from Old English ġiellan, from Proto-Germanic *gellaną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gälje (“to yell”), Dutch gillen (“to yell”), German Low German gellen (“to yell”), German gellen (“to yell”).


section

From Middle English seccioun, from Old French section, from Latin sectiō (“cutting, cutting off, excision, amputation of diseased parts of the body, etc.”), from sectus, past participle of secāre (“to cut”). More at saw.

разрэ́з

surgery: incision or the act of making an incision

The horn section is the group of symphonic musicians who play the French horn.

(music) A group of instruments in an orchestra.

A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
A group of instruments in an orchestra.


fine

From Italian fine (“end”). French fin. Doublet of fin and finis.

(music) The end of a musical composition.

(music) The location in a musical score that indicates the end of the piece, particularly when the piece ends somewhere in the middle of the score due to a section of the music being repeated.


purplish

en-adj

purplish (comparative more purplish, superlative most purplish)

more purplish (comparative)
most purplish (superlative)


citron

citron (comparative more citron, superlative most citron)

more citron (comparative)
most citron (superlative)

Borrowed from French citron (“lemon, lime”), Latin citrus (“citron tree, thuja”), probably via Etruscan derived from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros) (see there for further etymology).


fizzle

en-verb

fizzle (third-person singular simple present fizzles, present participle fizzling, simple past and past participle fizzled)

fizzles (present singular third-person)
fizzling (participle present)
fizzled (participle past)
fizzled (past)

Attested in English since 1525-35. From earlier fysel (“to fart”). Related to fīsa (“to fart”). Compare with Swedish fisa (“to fart (silently)”). See also feist.
It could also come from old Norse: "fise" simply means "blow," like in "blow in the wind." A weather-exposed community in Rogaland, Norway, is called Fister. (In modern language, the verb "fisle" has the same 3 meanings as in English, see below.)

The soda fizzled for several minutes after it was poured.

It is the easest thing, sir, to be done, / As plain as fizzling.

The entire project fizzled after the founder quit.

And so it fizzled to its close with Gary Cahill galloping around as an extra centre-forward, mutinous chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt,” from the England followers and Hodgson’s media staff announcing he would not take any questions.

2016 June 27, Daniel Taylor, “England humiliated as Iceland knock them out of Euro 2016”, in The Guardian, London:

(figuratively, informal) To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped.


taciturn

en-adj

taciturn (comparative more taciturn, superlative most taciturn)

more taciturn (comparative)
most taciturn (superlative)

Back-formation from taciturnity, from Middle English taciturnite, from Latin taciturnitās; or alternatively from French taciturne, likely reinforced by Latin taciturnus, from tacitus (“secret, tacit”).

The two sisters could hardly have been more different, one so boisterous and expressive, the other so taciturn and calm.

We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb.

1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 18:

We spent a lot of time up on the staging of the great furnaces, trying to pick up the tricks of the trade from the taciturn furnacemen who sat around placidly smoking, or chewing twist, and occasionally throwing in more pig iron to the molten white-hot metal.

1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:

Silent; temperamentally untalkative; disinclined to speak.


verse

en-noun

verse (countable and uncountable, plural verses)

From Middle English vers, from a mixture of Old English fers and Old French vers; both from Latin versus (“a line in writing, and in poetry a verse; (originally) row, furrow”), from vertō (“to turn around”).

uder

(music) A portion of an anthem to be performed by a single voice to each part.


bluish

en-adj

bluish (comparative more bluish, superlative most bluish)

more bluish (comparative)
most bluish (superlative)

From Middle English blewissh, blewisch (also Middle English bloysh), equivalent to blue + -ish.

To this day, I usually read my Bible a couple of times a day, and I still enjoy attempting to express my feelings through poetry, especially when I'm feeling bluish.

2009, John Wooden, Jay Carty, Coach Wooden One-On-One:


recapitulation

en-noun

recapitulation (countable and uncountable, plural recapitulations)

re·kə·pĭ·chə·lāʹshən

From Anglo-Norman recapitulaciun et al., Middle French recapitulacion et al., or their source, from Late Latin recapitulatio (“summing up, summary”), from the participle stem of recapitulare (“recapitulate”), from re- + capitulum (“chapter, section”), diminutive of caput (“head”).

der

(music) The third major section of a musical movement written in sonata form, representing thematic material that originally appeared in the exposition section.

再現部

music: third major part of a movement in sonata form


doughnut

→ Afrikaans: donut, doughnut

→ Albanian: donut

→ Arabic: دُونَات (dūnāt)

Hijazi Arabic: دونت (dōnat)

→ Bengali: ডোনাট (ḍōnaṭ)

→ Bulgarian: донът (donǎt)

→ Burmese: ဒိုးနပ် (dui:nap)

→ Catalan: dònut

→ Cebuano: donut

→ Chinese:

desc

Cantonese: 多甩 (do¹ lat¹), 冬甩 (dung¹ lat¹)

Mandarin: 多拿滋 (duōnázī)

→ Danish: donut

→ Dutch: donut

→ French: donut

→ German: Donut, Doughnut

→ Hindi: डोनट (ḍonaṭ)

→ Indonesian: donat

→ Irish: taoschnó (calque)

→ Japanese: ドーナツ (dōnatsu), ドーナッツ (dōnattsu)

→ Korean: 도넛 (doneot)

→ Malay: donat

→ Maori: tōnati

→ Marshallese: tonaaj (via plural); to̧nōt

→ Persian: دونات (donât)

→ Portuguese: dónute

→ Spanish: dona; dónat, dónut

→ Swedish: donut

→ Tagalog: donat

→ Tausug: dunat

→ Thai: โดนัต (doo-nát), โดนัท (doo-nát) — popular spelling

→ Turkish: donut

→ Urdu: ڈونٹ (ḍonaṭ)

→ Yiddish: דאָנאַט (donat)

From dough + nut, 1809 because originally small, nut-sized balls of fried dough, or, more likely, from nut in the earlier sense of "small rounded cake or cookie", with the toroidal shape becoming common in the twentieth century. First attested in Knickerbocker’s History of New York, by Washington Irving, 1809.

take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut


birdsong

en-noun

birdsong (countable and uncountable, plural birdsongs)

Vocalisations made by birds, considered collectively.


ow

Now don't you wait or hesitate / Let's move before they raise the parking rate, ow!

1970, Free (lyrics and music), “All Right Now”:

Then you ran into the bedroom / You were struck down / It was your doom, Annie / Ow!

1987, Michael Jackson (lyrics and music), “Smooth Criminal”:


disco

disco (countable and uncountable, plural discos)

→ Cebuano: disko

→ Esperanto: diskoo

→ Dutch: disco

→ Polish: disco

→ Romanian: disco

→ Swahili: disko

→ Tagalog: disko

→ Turkish: disko

From a shortening of discotheque, from French discothèque.

And black music became a hot commodity in the form of disco, its lyrics and rhythm laced with a palpable (even ethnic) amiguity, helping people dance and escape their concerns. Even the cry of “burn, baby, burn”, a popular chant during many a 1960s urban rebellion, was co-opted by the times, becoming the chorus for the 1977 dance hit “Disco Inferno.”

2009, Marcus Reeves, Somebody Scream!, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN:

(uncountable, music) A genre of dance music that was popular in the 1970s, characterized by elements of soul music with a strong Latin-American beat and often accompanied by pulsating lights.


chorus

chorus (plural choruses or (dated) chorusses or (rare) chori)

choruses (plural)
chorusses (dated plural)
chori (plural rare)

The noun is borrowed from Medieval Latin chorus (“church choir”), Latin chorus (“group of dancers and singers; dance”), from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós, “group of dancers and singers, choir, chorus; dance accompanied by song; round dance”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to encircle, enclose”) or *ǵʰoros. Doublet of choir and hora.
The plural form chori is from Latin chorī, from Ancient Greek χοροί (khoroí).
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

The performance of the chorus was awe-inspiring and exhilarating.

A group of singers performing together; a choir; specifically, such a group singing together in a musical, an opera, etc., as distinct from the soloists; an ensemble.

хор

group of singers performing together — see also choir

A piece of music, especially one in a larger work such as an opera, written to be sung by a choir in parts (for example, by sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses).

The catchiest part of most songs is the chorus.

[T]he commodore, the lieutenant, and landlord, joined in the chorus, repeating this elegant ſtanza: […]

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “An Account of Mr. Gamaliel Pickle. […]”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC, page 10, column 1:

See the flowing bowl before us, / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / Strike the harp and join the chorus. / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

1862, T[homas] Oliphant, John Thomas, arranger, “No. 15. Nos Galan. New Year’s Eve. [Deck the Halls]”, in Welsh Melodies: With Welsh and English Poetry, London: Addison, Hollier & Lucas, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 140:

A part of a song which is repeated between verses to emphasize the song's content; a refrain.

refren

part of a song repeated between verses — see also refrain

The main part of a pop song played after the introduction.

A group of organ pipes or organ stops intended to be played simultaneously; a compound stop; also, the sound made by such pipes or stops.

(often attributively) A feature or setting in electronic music that makes one instrument sound like many.

refrein

(Christianity) A simple, often repetitive, song intended to be sung in a group during informal worship.

Of additional interest is the riff in the second chorus, which was later copied by Joe Garland and recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra as "In the Mood," becoming the biggest hit of the Swing Era.

2002, Thomas E. Larson, History and Tradition of Jazz, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, →ISBN:

Jazz solos in the 1920s are much more about variety and discontinuity than unity and coherence. The explosive introduction, the instrutable and tender scat-clarinet dialogue, the spritely piano chorus, and the majestic trumpet chorus—contrast is far more important than unity.

2014, Thomas Brothers, “‘Some Kind of a God’”, in Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism, New York, N.Y., London: W[illiam] W[arder] Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 299:

(jazz) The improvised solo section in a small group performance.


part

desc

→ Cantonese: part (paat¹), parts (paat¹ si²) (from the plural noun form)

→ Japanese: パート (pāto), パーツ (pātsu) (from the plural noun form)

From Middle English part, from Old English part (“part”) and Old French part (“part”); both from Latin partem, accusative of pars (“piece, portion, share, side, party, faction, role, character, lot, fate, task, lesson, part, member”), from Proto-Indo-European *par-, *per- (“to sell, exchange”). Akin to Latin portiō (“a portion, part”), parāre (“to make ready, prepare”). Displaced Middle English del, dele (“part”) (from Old English dǣl (“part, distribution”) > Modern English deal (“portion; amount”)), Middle English dale, dole (“part, portion”) (from Old English dāl (“portion”) > Modern English dole), Middle English sliver (“part, portion”) (from Middle English sliven (“to cut, cleave”), from Old English (tō)slifan (“to split”)).

noncog

The first violin part in this concerto is very challenging.

(music) The melody played or sung by a particular instrument, voice, or group of instruments or voices, within a polyphonic piece.

партия

music: melody played or sung by a particular instrument, voice, or group of instruments or voices


andiron

From Middle English aundire, aundiren, from Old French andier (possibly from Gaulish anderon (“heifer”)) compare Welsh anner, annair (“heifer”), Breton annoar (“heifer”), from Proto-Celtic *anderā (“young woman”), due either to their somewhat animal-like appearance of four legs or to the prominent figuring of bull and heifer design elements; compare its alternative names of fire-dog and dog-iron. Spelling influenced by iron.

The furniture was old-fashioned and massive. The great brass andirons on the wide hearth stood like sentinels proclaiming and guarding the dignity of the family. The spreading antlers on the wall testified to a mighty hunter in some past generation.

1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter 7, in The House Behind the Cedars:

(usually in the plural) A utensil for supporting wood when burning in a fireplace, one being placed on each side

capfoguer

a utensil for supporting wood while burning


tierce

From Old French tierce, from Latin tertia.

(music) The third tone of the scale. See mediant.


lightning bug

I watched as lightning bugs drifted in, glowing yellow against the shadows.

2019, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer, Penguin Books (2020), page 18:


col legno

Borrowed from Italian col legno (literally “with the wood”).

bor

Webern took particular care with the col legno passages. In the quiet ostinatos of the first and third pieces (which can be seen as parallel in many ways), he added weich gezogen (gently drawn) to the col legno indications.

1996, Kathryn Bailey, editor, Webern Studies, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 156:

(music) A musical notation indicating that the strings of an instrument are to be struck with the wooden part of the bow.

per ligno

the strings must be struck with the wood of the bow


shade

en-noun

shade (countable and uncountable, plural shades)

Noun from Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, sċadu (“shadow; shade”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shadow; shade”). More at shadow.
Verb from Old English sceadwian, derived from sċeadu, above.

inh

Lighting was unimaginative for the standard stock with naked tungsten filament bulbs and metal reflectors. However, all compartments had individual reading lights above the seats with attractive glass shades.

1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw, Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 398:

(countable) A cover around or above a light bulb, a lampshade.


diaphragm

/ˈdaɪəˌfɹæm/

From Ancient Greek διάφραγμα (diáphragma, “partition”), from διά (diá, “across”) and φράγμα (phrágma, “barrier”), from the verb φράσσω (phrássō).

мембра́на

anatomy: separating membrane or sheet of muscle

(acoustics) In a speaker, the thin, semi-rigid membrane which vibrates to produce sound.

мембра́на

acoustics: vibrating membrane in a speaker


martellato

/ˌmɑː(ɹ)təˈlɑːtəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian martellato (“hammered”), from martellare (“to hammer, throb”), from martello (“hammer”), related to Latin martulus, marculus (“small hammer”), diminutive of marcus (“hammer”).

(music) Strongly accented, or hammered out; used of notes played on bowed string instruments, handbells, or the piano.


martellato

/ˌmɑː(ɹ)təˈlɑːtəʊ/

(music) A passage played with a strong accent, or hammered out.


resolve

en-verb

resolve (third-person singular simple present resolves, present participle resolving, simple past and past participle resolved)

resolves (present singular third-person)
resolving (participle present)
resolved (participle past)
resolved (past)

From Middle English resolven, from Old French resolver, a learned borrowing of Latin resolvō (“loosen, thaw, melt, resolve”), equivalent to re- + solve. Piecewise doublet of re-solve.

sulattaa

to melt; to dissolve; to liquefy or soften

(music) To cause a chord to go from dissonance to consonance.

purkaa

to cause a chord to go from dissonance to consonance


delay

en-noun

delay (countable and uncountable, plural delays)

→ Portuguese: delay

From Middle English delaien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman delaier, Old French deslaier, from des- + Old French laier (“to leave”), a conflation of Old Frankish *lattjan ("to delay, hinder"; from Proto-Germanic *latjaną (“to delay, hinder, stall”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- (“to leave, leave behind”)), and Old Frankish *laibijan ("to leave"; from Proto-Germanic *laibijaną (“to leave, cause to stay”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to remain, continue”)). Doublet of dally.
Akin to Old English latian (“to delay, hesitate”), Old English latu (“a delay, a hindrance”), Old English lǣfan (“to leave”). More at let (to hinder), late, leave.

cog

The 8-bit sound quality of many early delays did indeed leave a lot to be desired (compare this to the 16-bit digital technology of CDs)

2014, Dave Hunter, Guitar Amps and Effects For Dummies, page 259:

(music) An audio effects unit that introduces a controlled delay.


collier

From Middle English colier, from col (“coal”).

By 1830, more than two million tons of coal a year, principally from the North East, arrived in London by coastal collier, and that figure reached three million tons by the 1840s.

2021 December 1, Nigel Harris, “St Pancras and King's Cross: 1947”, in RAIL, number 945, page 42:

(nautical) A vessel carrying a bulk cargo of coal.


precipitato

Borrowed from Italian precipitato, masculine past participle of precipitare (“to precipitate”). Doublet of precipitate.


adagietto

/əˌdæ(d)ʒiːˈɛtəʊ/

/əˌdɑː(d)ʒiːˈɛtəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian adagietto, a diminutive of adagio.

(music) A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played slightly faster than adagio.


adagietto

/əˌdæ(d)ʒiːˈɛtəʊ/

/əˌdɑː(d)ʒiːˈɛtəʊ/


adagietto

/əˌdæ(d)ʒiːˈɛtəʊ/

/əˌdɑː(d)ʒiːˈɛtəʊ/

(music) Describing a passage having this mark.


firefly

2000, Exploring Life Science, 2: Bats—Cave Life, Marshall Cavendish, page 96,
Fireflies are the best-known insects that produce light. […] Many fireflies use their light to communicate, particularly at mating time when males and females have to get together.

The luciferins are different in different species and today both the luciferin and luciferase in the firefly are available in the crystalline form.

2004, B. V. David, T. N. Ananthakrishnan, “Chapter 20: Bioluminescence”, in General and Applied Entomology, 2nd edition, Tata McGraw-Hill, page 130:

Various other luciferase genes, especially the firefly luciferase gene, are also used for the study of gene regulation.[…]The classic use of bioluminescence, however, is the use of a luciferin-luciferase mixture from fireflies as an assay for ATP.

2007, Lars Olof Björn, Helen Ghiradella, “23: Bioluminescence”, in Lars Olof Björn, editor, Photobiology: The Science of Life and Light, 2nd edition, Springer, page 607:

(Northern US, Western US, Florida) Any beetle of the family Lampyridae, which exhibit bioluminescence during twilight.


set on fire

en-verb

set on fire (third-person singular simple present sets on fire, present participle setting on fire, simple past and past participle set on fire)

sets on fire (present singular third-person)
setting on fire (participle present)
set on fire (participle past)
set on fire (past)

I don't want to set the world on fire / I just want to start a flame in your heart

1941 [1938], Bennie Benjamin, Eddie Durham, Sol Marcus, Eddie Seiler (lyrics and music), “I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire” (0:05 from the start), performed by The Ink Spots, Decca:


fireplace

Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

An open hearth for holding a fire at the base of a chimney.


handbag

en-noun

handbag (countable and uncountable, plural handbags)

From hand + bag. The music genre is named from women dancing around a pile of their handbags in nightclubs. The verb is a reference to Margaret Thatcher's handbag.

(uncountable, music) Ellipsis of handbag house.


hearth

From Middle English herth, herthe, from Old English heorþ, from Proto-West Germanic *herþ, from Proto-Germanic *herþaz, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“heat; fire”). Cognate with West Frisian hurd, Dutch haard, German Herd, Swedish härd.


Schubertiade

(music) A social gathering whose primary purpose is the performance of the music of Schubert and where the music of no other composer is played.


bice

en-noun

bice (countable and uncountable, plural bices)

From French bis, akin to Italian bigio (“light gray, tawny”). Doublet of beige.

A pale blue pigment, prepared from the native blue carbonate of copper, or from smalt.


rest

rest (countable and uncountable, plural rests)

From Middle English rest, reste, from Old English ræst, from Proto-West Germanic *rastu, from Proto-Germanic *rastō, from Proto-Indo-European *ros-, *res-, *erH- (“rest”). Cognate with West Frisian rêst (“rest”), Dutch rust (“rest”), German Rast (“rest”), Swedish rast (“rest”), Norwegian rest (“rest”), Icelandic röst (“rest”), Old Irish árus (“dwelling”), German Ruhe (“calm”), Albanian resht (“to stop, pause”), Welsh araf (“quiet, calm, gentle”), Lithuanian rovà (“calm”), Ancient Greek ἐρωή (erōḗ, “rest, respite”), Avestan 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬨𐬈 (aⁱrime, “calm, peaceful”), Sanskrit रमते (rámate, “he stays still, calms down”), Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌼𐌹𐍃 (rimis, “tranquility”). Related to roo.

rest

stick used to support the cue in snooker

Remember there's a rest at the end of the fourth bar.

(music, countable) A pause of a specified length in a piece of music.

rusteken

(music, countable) A written symbol indicating such a pause in a musical score such as in sheet music.


cleaver

From Middle English clevere, equivalent to cleave + -er.

(music, Bahamas) A type of clave, or rhythm stick, a concussive musical instrument used in traditional Bahamian music.


matra

Borrowed from Sanskrit मात्रा (mātrā, “measure, small quantity”).

bor

(music) In Indian music, the smallest rhythmic unit of a tala.


intrata

She likes the intrata from Bach's fifth 'cello suite.

(music) A piece of music which serves as an introduction.


foam

en-noun

foam (countable and uncountable, plural foams)

From Middle English fom, foom, from Old English fām, from Proto-West Germanic *faim, from Proto-Germanic *faimaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)poHy-m-os, from *(s)poH(y)- (“foam”). Cognate with German Feim (“foam”), Latin spūma (“foam”), Latin pūmex (“pumice”), Sanskrit फेन (phéna, “foam”), possibly Northern Kurdish fê (“epilepsy”).

skuim

A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially:

(firefighting) A collection of small bubbles formed by mixing an extinguishing agent with water, used to cover and extinguish fires.


foam

en-verb

foam (third-person singular simple present foams, present participle foaming, simple past and past participle foamed)

foams (present singular third-person)
foaming (participle present)
foamed (participle past)
foamed (past)

It used to be common practice to foam the runway prior to an emergency landing, in case a fuel-fed fire occurred.

(firefighting) To coat or cover with foam.


intrada

We listened to Telemann's intrada for two flutes.

(music) A piece of music that serves as an introduction.


roundel

From Middle English roundel, rundel, rondel, from Old French rondel (“something round and flat”), a diminutive of rond (“round”). More at round.

der

Come, now a roundel and a fairy song ... Fairies sing.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 1:


mulberry

en-adj

mulberry (comparative more mulberry, superlative most mulberry)

more mulberry (comparative)
most mulberry (superlative)

From Middle English mulbery, molberye, murberie, partly from Old English mōrberġe (“mulberry”) (q.v.), and probably partly from Middle Low German mulbere (“mulberry”). Compare Dutch moerbezie, moerbei (“mulberry”), German Maulbeere (“mulberry”).


eek

onomatopoeic

Imitative

Eek! There's a mouse in the bathtub!

Representing a scream or shriek (especially in comic strips and books).

Representing the shrill vocal sound of a mouse, rat, or monkey.


eek

en-verb

eek (third-person singular simple present eeks, present participle eeking, simple past and past participle eeked)

eeks (present singular third-person)
eeking (participle present)
eeked (participle past)
eeked (past)

onomatopoeic

Imitative

She was dangling the mouse by its tail, but as it tried to arch upwards and bite, she started to jig about wildly […] The anglers had watched a beautiful young woman dance naked beneath a full moon to the feverish rhythm of unworldly eeking noises!

2009, Paul Gelder, Yachting Monthly's Further Confessions:

We saw a frog and she eeked in terror again from the sight of it hopping near her.

2011, Isaac E. Washington, The Stars in My Dreams, page 106:

“Sorry, love, they all look the same to me,” said Dad, desperately trying to spot one with a particularly pink nose. “Armitage? ARMITAGE!” called Zoe. All the rats eeked. Every single one of them wanted to escape.
“We’ll just have to set them all free,” said Zoe.

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

To produce a high-pitched squeal, as in fear or trepidation.


lambada

Borrowed from Portuguese lambada (“strong slap, hit”).

(preceded by definite article) A fast-paced, erotic Brazilian dance in which couples dance with their stomachs touching.


watermelon

en-noun

watermelon (countable and uncountable, plural watermelons)

/ˈwɔːtəˌmɛlən/

From the 1610s, a compound of water + melon. The meanings referring to environmentalists and behind schedule projects derive from the idea of having green (eco-friendly, on-schedule) outward appearance while being red (socialist, behind schedule) in a hidden way comparable to that of the fruit.

Citrullus lanatus
Citrullus lanatus#Translingual

A plant of the species Citrullus lanatus, bearing a melon-like fruit.


rank

rank (countable and uncountable, plural ranks)

From Middle English rank (“line, row”), from Old French ranc, rang, reng (“line, row, rank”) (Modern French rang), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“something bent or curved”).
Akin to Old High German (h)ring, Old Frisian hring, Old English hring, hrincg (“ring”), Old Norse hringr (“ring, circle, queue, sword; ship”). Doublet of ring and rink.

cog

(music) In a pipe organ, a set of pipes of a certain quality for which each pipe corresponds to one key or pedal.


luminance

en-noun

luminance (countable and uncountable, plural luminances)

The amount of light that passes through, is emitted, or is reflected from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle.

The luminous flux emitted in a given direction divided by the product of the projected area of the source element perpendicular to the direction and the solid angle containing that direction (i.e. luminous intensity divided by unit area), measured in stilbs or apostilbs.


underground

en-adj

underground (comparative more underground, superlative most underground)

more underground (comparative)
most underground (superlative)

/ˌʌndəˈɡɹaʊnd/

/ˌʌndɚˈɡɹaʊnd/

From Middle English undergrounde (adverb), equivalent to under + ground or under- + ground. Compare Dutch ondergrond, ondergronds, German Untergrund, Danish undergrunds.

underground music

‘[…]he wrote to me last week telling me about an incredible bitch of a row blazing there on account of someone having been and gone and produced an unofficial magazine called Raddled, full of obscene libellous Oz-like filth. And what I though, what Sammy and I thought, was—why not?’ ‘Why not what?’ said Tom. ‘Why not do the same thing here?’ ‘You mean an underground magazine?’ ‘Yup.’

"In many ways, it showed there was no longer an underground, as such. This proved that there was no longer one society with everyone agreeing how to live . . . The underground had officially come above ground, and consequently no longer existed."

2010 March 20, James Campbell, “Barry Miles: 'I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live'”, in The Guardian:

(of music, art etc.) Outside the mainstream, especially unofficial and hidden from the authorities.


fire drill

There is no machine on earth so potent, yet so simple and elegant, as the two sticks of the Native American fire drill;

1999, Paul Douglas Campbell, Survival Skills of Native California, →ISBN, page 4:

A fire-starting tool consisting of a wooden rod and some primitive means of rapidly rotating the rod on a flat surface like a drill until tinder can be ignited.


ribbit

The students fell momentarily silent while he finished writing on the board. Then, "Ribbit!"

Used to anonymously and disrespectfully break silence, as in educational or ceremonial settings.


brightness

en-noun

brightness (usually uncountable, plural brightnesses)

From Middle English bryghtnes, brightnesse, from Old English beorhtnes (“brightness, splendor”), from Proto-West Germanic *berhtnassī, equivalent to bright + -ness. Cognate with Old High German berahtnessī, berahtnessi (“brightness”).

inh

պայծառություն

perception elicited by the luminance of an object


mallet

From Middle English malet, maylet, from Old French mallet, maillet (“a wooden hammer, mallet”), diminutive of mal, mail (“a hammer”), from Latin malleus (“a hammer, mall, mallet”).

der

(music) A small hammer-like tool used for playing certain musical instruments.


barrel

From Middle English barel, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin. An attempt to link baril to Old French barre (“bar, bolt”) (compare Medieval Latin barra (“bar, rod”)) via assumed Vulgar Latin *barrīculum meets the phonological requirement, but fails to connect the word semantically. The alternate connection to Frankish *baril, *beril or Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐍂𐌹𐌻𐍃 (bērils, “container for transport”), from Proto-Germanic *barilaz, *bērilaz (“barrel, jug, container”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, transport”), is more plausible as it connects not only the form of the word but also the sense; equivalent to bear + -le. Compare also Old High German biril (“jug, large pot”), Luxembourgish Bärel, Bierel (“jug, pot”), Old Norse berill (“barrel for liquids”), Old English byrla (“barrel of a horse, trunk, body”). More at bear.

vat

round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop

(music) The part of a clarinet which connects the mouthpiece and upper joint, and looks rather like a barrel (1).