horizontal

en-adj

horizontal (comparative more horizontal, superlative most horizontal)

more horizontal (comparative)
most horizontal (superlative)

/ˌhɒɹɪˈzɒntəl/

(music, of an interval) Having the two notes sound successively.


vertical

vertical (comparative more vertical, superlative most vertical)

more vertical (comparative)
most vertical (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French vertical, from Late Latin verticālis.

(music) Of an interval: having the two notes sound simultaneously.


cover

en-noun

cover (countable and uncountable, plural covers)

→ Hijazi Arabic: كَڤَر (kavar)

→ Portuguese: cover

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

cog

throw nickels around like manhole covers

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


cover

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


cover

en-verb

cover (third-person singular simple present covers, present participle covering, simple past and past participle covered)

covers (present singular third-person)
covering (participle present)
covered (participle past)
covered (past)

→ German: covern

→ Danish: lave en cover

(music, transitive) To make a cover version of (a song that was originally recorded by another artist).


flat

en-adj

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

flatter (comparative)
flattest (superlative)

bumpy

antonym(s) of “having no variations in altitude”

→ Portuguese: flat

From Middle English flat, a borrowing from Old Norse flatr (compare Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from Proto-Germanic *flataz, from Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat”); akin to Saterland Frisian flot (“smooth”), German Flöz (“a geological layer”), Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús), Latvian plats, Sanskrit प्रथस् (prathas, “extension”). Doublet of plat and pleyt.
The noun is from Middle English flat (“level piece of ground, flat edge of a weapon”), from the adjective.
The algebraic sense was coined by Serre in a 1956 paper, originally as French plat.

inh

He delivered the speech in a flat tone.

Without variation in level, quantity, value, tone etc.

(music, voice) Without variations in pitch.

Your A string is flat.

(music) Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.


flat

The key of E♭ has three flats.

(music) A note played one chromatic semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol ♭ placed after the letter representing the note (e.g., B♭) or in front of the note symbol (e.g. ♭♪).

mol

music: note played a semitone lower than a natural


flat

en-verb

flat (third-person singular simple present flats, present participle flatting, simple past and past participle flatted)

flats (present singular third-person)
flatting (participle present)
flatted (participle past)
flatted (past)

(intransitive, music, colloquial) To fall from the pitch.

(transitive, music) To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.


whip

→ Irish: fuip

⇒ Jamaican Creole: wip

From Middle English whippen, wippen (“to flap violently”), from Middle Dutch wippen (“to swing, leap, dance, oscillate”) and Middle Low German wippen (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Germanic *wipjaną (“to move back and forth”). Some similarity to Sanskrit root वेप् (vep, “shake, flourish”), Latin vibrō (“I shake”). (See Swedish vippa and Danish vippe (“to shake”)).
The unetymological wh- is probably expressive of the sound of a whip; compare the same development in whisk and onomatopoeias such as whack and whoosh.
The political senses are from whipper-in (“huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering”), 18th century hunting terminology.

der

Any of various pieces that operate with a quick vibratory motion

(music) A wippen, a rocking component in certain piano actions.


set

From Middle English set, sete, sette (“that which is set, the act of setting, seat”), from Old English set (“setting, seat, a place where people remain, habitation, camp, entrenchment, a place where animals are kept, stall, fold”) and Old English seten (“a set, shoot, slip, branch; a nursery, plantation; that which is planted or set; a cultivated place; planting, cultivation; a setting, putting; a stopping; occupied land”), related to Old English settan (“to set”). Compare Middle Low German gesette (“a set, suite”), Old English gesetl (“assembly”). According to Skeat, in senses denoting a group of things or persons, representing an alteration of sept, from Old French sette (“a religious sect”), from Medieval Latin secta (“retinue”), from Latin secta (“a faction”). See sect. It is quite possible that the modern word is more of a merger between both, however.

cog

You heard “oh, Jeremy Corbyn” everywhere: at the silent disco, during Radiohead’s Friday night headlining set, midway through the Other stage appearance by rapper Stormzy, who gamely joined in.

2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian

en:musical performance comprising several pieces

(music) A musical performance by a band, disc jockey, etc., consisting of several musical pieces.

He plays the set on Saturdays.


flame

en-noun

flame (countable and uncountable, plural flames)

From Middle English flawme, blend of Old French flame and flambe, flamble, the first from Latin flamma, the second from Latin flammula, diminutive of flamma, both from pre-Latin *fladma; Proto-Italic *flagmā, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shimmer, gleam, shine”). Displaced native Old English līeġ.

der

The cello has a two-piece back with a beautiful narrow flame.

(music, chiefly lutherie) The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the curl.


organ

→ Korean: 오르간 (oreugan)

→ Maori: ōkana

→ Vietnamese: oóc-gan

From Middle English organe, from Old French organe, from Latin organum, from Ancient Greek ὄργανον (órganon, “an instrument, implement, tool, also an organ of sense or apprehension, an organ of the body, also a musical instrument, an organ”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-. Doublet of organon, organum, and orgue.

(music) A musical instrument that has multiple pipes which play when a key is pressed (the pipe organ), or an electronic instrument designed to replicate such.


space

en-noun

space (countable and uncountable, plural spaces)

From Middle English space, from Anglo-Norman space, variant of espace, espas et al., and spaze, variant of espace, from Latin spatium, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peh₂- (“to stretch, to pull”).

boşluq

gap between written characters, lines etc.

Fully Automated Luxury Queer Space Communism

The note next above Sol is La; La, therefore, stands in the 2nd space; Si, on the 3rd line, &c.

1849, Guillaume Louis Bocquillon-Wilhem, translated by John Pyke Hullah, Wilhelm's Method of Teaching Singing

The lines and spaces of the staff are named according to the first seven letters of the alphabet, that is, A B C D E F G.

(heading) A bounded or specific extent, physical or otherwise.

(music) A position on the staff or stave bounded by lines.


wedge

en-noun

wedge (countable and uncountable, plural wedges)

From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz.

Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.

(music) A hairpin, an elongated horizontal V-shaped sign indicating a crescendo or decrescendo.


long

From Middle English long, lang, from Old English long, lang (“long, tall, lasting”), from Proto-West Germanic *lang, from Proto-Germanic *langaz (“long”), from Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”).
Cognate with Scots lang (“long”), North Frisian long, lung (“long”), Saterland Frisian loang (“long”), Norwegian, West Frisian, Dutch and German lang (“long”), Swedish lång (“long”), Icelandic langur (“long”), Portuguese longo (“long”), Spanish luengo (“long”), French long, Latin longus (“long”), Russian дли́нный (dlínnyj), до́лго (dólgo), Sanskrit दीर्घ (dīrgha, “long”).
The word exceptionally retains the Old English darkening of -a- before nasals. Though there are other such examples in Middle and Modern English (e.g. bond, song, throng, wrong), the o-form may have been reinforced by Old French long, from Latin longus, from the same Indo-European word. Doublet of lungo and lunge.

(music) A note formerly used in music, one half the length of a large, twice that of a breve.


plate

→ Maori: pereti

→ Hindi: प्लेट (pleṭ)

From Middle English plate, from Old French plate, from Medieval Latin plata, from Vulgar Latin *plat(t)us, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “broad, flat, wide”). Compare Spanish plato.


wind

en-noun

wind (countable and uncountable, plural winds)

Tok Pisin: win

Torres Strait Creole: win

From Middle English wynd, wind, from Old English wind (“wind”), from Proto-West Germanic *wind, from Proto-Germanic *windaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥tos (“wind”), from earlier *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“wind”), derived from the present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch wind, German Wind, West Frisian wyn, Norwegian and Swedish vind, Icelandic vindur, Latin ventus, Welsh gwynt, Sanskrit वात (vā́ta), Russian ве́тер (véter), perhaps Albanian bundë (“strong damp wind”). Doublet of athlete, vent, weather and nirvana.

it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good

you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

(music) The woodwind section of an orchestra. Occasionally also used to include the brass section.

ду́хова се́кция

(music) the woodwind section of an orchestra; occasionally also used to include the brass section


metal

metal (countable and uncountable, plural metals)

nonmetal

antonym(s) of “any of a number of chemical elements in the periodic table that form a metallic bond with other metal atoms”

From Middle English metal, a borrowing from Old French metal, from Latin metallum (“metal, mine, quarry, mineral”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek μέταλλον (métallon, “mine, quarry, metal”).

аметалл

atomic element or material made of such atoms

(music) A category of rock music encompassing a number of genres (including thrash metal, death metal, heavy metal, etc.) characterized by strong drum-beats and distorted guitars.


metal

en-adj

metal (comparative more metal, superlative most metal)

more metal (comparative)
most metal (superlative)

(music) Characterized by strong drum-beats and distorted guitars.


suspension

en-noun

suspension (countable and uncountable, plural suspensions)

From Late Latin suspensiō, suspensiōnem (“arching, vaulting; suspension”), from suspendēre, from suspendō (“to hang up, to suspend”), from sub- (“prefix meaning ‘under’”) + pendere (from pendō (“to hang, to suspend”), from Proto-Italic *pendō (“to hang, to put in a hanging position”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pénd-e-ti, from *(s)pend- (“to pull; to spin”)). Compare Anglo-Norman suspensiun, French suspension, Occitan suspensio.

der

As in Sequenza IV, the suspension of the chord creates several different layers of activity, which can be understood by looking at the right hand’s chord in bar two.

2007, Zoe Browder Doll, “Phantom Rhythms, Hidden Harmonies: The Use of the Sostenuto Pedal in Berio’s Sequenza IV for Piano, Leaf and Sonata”, in Janet K. Halfyard, editor, Berio's Sequenzas: Essays on Performance, Composition and Analysis, Aldershot, Hampshire, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, page 62

(music) The act of or discord produced by prolonging one or more tones of a chord into the chord which follows, thus producing a momentary discord, suspending the concord which the ear expects.

voorhouding

music: prolonging of one or more tones of a chord into the chord which follows


tail

Sranan Tongo: tere

From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *tagl, from Proto-Germanic *taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Saterland Frisian Tail (“tail, end”), West Frisian teil (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌻 (tagl, “hair”). In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head and tail.

cog

have the world by the tail on a downhill pull

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make lofty ships carry low sails

mackerel sky and mare's-tails make tall ships carry low sails

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

trust someone as far as one could fling a bull by the tail

(music) The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.


bass

A respelling of base under the influence of Italian basso (“low”).

SATB

Initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass.

The musician swung the bass over his head like an axe and smashed it into the amplifier, creating a discordant howl of noise.

(music) An instrument that plays in the bass range, in particular a double bass, bass guitar, electric bass or bass synthesiser.


instrumentalness

(music) How likely the music contains no spoken word vocals


leader

→ Catalan: líder

→ Czech: lídr

→ Galician: líder

→ Japanese: リーダー (rīdā)

→ Korean: 리더 (rideo)

→ Polish: lider

→ Portuguese: líder

→ Romanian: lider

→ Russian: ли́дер (líder)

→ Spanish: líder

→ Turkish: lider

→ Ukrainian: лі́дер (líder)

From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English lǣdere (“leader”), equivalent to lead + -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

(music) A performer who leads a band, choir, or a section of an orchestra.

(music, UK) The first violin in a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.


box

table
From Middle English box (“box tree; boxwood”), from Old English box (“box tree”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhs (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), from Latin buxus (“box tree; thing made from boxwood”), buxum (“box tree; boxwood”), possibly from πύξος (púxos, “box tree; boxwood”).

shimshir

shrub or tree of the genus Buxus — see also box tree

Evenin’, folks. Thought y’all might lak uh lil music this evenin’ so Ah brought long mah box.

1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 11, in Their Eyes were Watching God: A Novel, Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition, Philadelphia, Pa., London: J.B. Lippincott Company, →OCLC; Illini Books edition, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1978, page 153

(music, slang) A musical instrument, especially one made from boxwood.


m

Abbreviations.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of am.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of him.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of my and mine.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of many.
# (stenoscript) the prefix mis-.
# (stenoscript) the prefix im-.

ng

and <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">mine</i>.


nut

→ Japanese: ナット (natto)

From Middle English nute, note, from Old English hnutu, from Proto-West Germanic *hnut, from Proto-Germanic *hnuts (“nut”), from a root *knu- possibly shared with Proto-Celtic *knūs and Latin nux (“nut”). Based on the form of the nouns and the restriction of the root to Germanic, Celtic and Italic, it has been argued to be of non-Indo-European (substrate) origin.
See also West Frisian nút, Dutch noot, German Nuss, Danish nød, Swedish nöt, Norwegian nøtt.

dió

walnut in particular and an element in the name of some other nuts

dióféle

literally: ’walnut-like’, the family of this fruit

walnuts, hazelnuts/peanuts, chestnuts, and related fruits

even a blind squirrel can find a nut once in a while

(music, lutherie) On stringed instruments such as guitars and violins, the small piece at the peghead end of the fingerboard that holds the strings at the proper spacing and, in most cases, the proper height.

yläsatula

musical instruments: small piece that holds the strings at the proper spacing


drill

From Middle Dutch drillen (“bore, move in a circle”).

der

Though the young women of Chicago’s drill scene can be as rowdy as their male counterparts, they’re also more diverse in subject matter and point to a possible way forward.

2012 October 4, Jon Caramanica, “Chicago Hip-Hop’s Raw Burst of Change”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

New York City mayor Eric Adams held a summit with a group of drill rappers on Tuesday night and clarified he doesn’t actually want to ban their music, days after he appeared to blame the music scene for the recent shooting deaths of two young New York rappers and suggested drill videos be pulled from the internet.

2022 February 18, Wilfred Chan, “Eric Adams meets with the drill rappers whose music he said he wanted to ban”, in The Guardian

Between ticky off-kilter rhythms and otherworldly digital voice processing, the experimental hip-hop genres trap and drill have delivered radical hymns from alien planets.

2022, W. David Marx, chapter 10, in Status and Culture, Viking

(uncountable, music) A style of trap music with gritty, violent lyrics, originating on the South Side of Chicago.


worship

en-noun

worship (usually uncountable, plural worships)

Inherited from Middle English worschippe, worthschipe, from Old English weorþsċiepe. Cognate with Scots worschip (“worship”).

inh+

In that time, McLachlan’s music has developed from adolescent Kate Bush worship to mature roots-driven folk (like the hits “Building a Mystery” and “Sweet Surrender”) and ballads (“Witness,” “I Love You”) that border on hymnody.

1998 April 30, Chris Mundy, “Interview: Sarah McLachlan”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-18

Rather, Lenny's new material covered a lot of ground, from the folk-to-hard rock build of "Fields of Joy," to the technology-accented church hymns of "Stand by My Woman," to the unapologetic Jimi Hendrix worship of "Stop Draggin' Around" to the stylish orchestrated Philly soul of "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over."

2016 April 2, Eduardo Rivadavia, “How Lenny Kravitz Combined Classic Rock and Soul on ‘Mama Said’”, in Ultimate Classic Rock, archived from the original on 2023-06-23

Of the songs with actual vocals, it’s much more derivative than anything else they would do. A couple songs are pretty close to My Bloody Valentine worship (which suits me fine). There’s very little of the glacial bowed-guitar and neo-classicism that made them one of the most celebrated bands in the world.

2020 October 17, Nathaniel FitzGerald, “The Worst Debuts From Great Bands”, in A Year of Vinyl, archived from the original on 2023-03-23

The pieces are so removed from Godspeed You! Black Emperor worship or [William] Basinski-style concrete constructions that listeners will question Munkus’ intentions – and that’s a shame, because the material’s ambitions soar above the structure of the disc.

2021 November 22, Justin Vellucci, “Daniel Munkus: The Edge of the High Trace”, in Spectrum Culture, archived from the original on 2021-12-25

(music, slang) The fact of an artist's music heavily drawing influence from some other artist's work in a way that appears too obvious or unapologetic; a piece of music that does that.


run

rise

antonym(s) of “horizontal part of a step”

rise

antonym(s) of “horizontal distance of a set of stairs”

From Middle English runnen, rennen (“to run”), alteration (due to the past participle runne, runnen,
yronne) of Middle English rinnen (“to run”), from Old English rinnan, iernan (“to run”) and Old Norse rinna (“to run”), both from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną (“to run”) (compare also *rannijaną (“to make run”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH- (“to boil, churn”).
Cognate with Scots rin (“to run”), West Frisian rinne (“to walk, march”), Dutch rennen (“to run, race”), Alemannic German ränne (“to run”), German rennen (“to run, race”), rinnen (“to flow”), Rhein, Danish rende (“to run”), Swedish ränna (“to run”), Swedish rinna (“to flow”), Icelandic renna (“to flow”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian rend (“to run, run after”). See random.

juoksu

point scored in baseball, cricket or similar games

(music) A rapid passage in music, especially along a scale.


a cappella

/ˌɑ kəˈpɛl.ə/

Borrowed from Italian a cappella (“in the manner of the [Sistine] chapel”), referring to non-instrumental choirs.

bor

(music) A vocal performance with no instrumental accompaniment.


a cappella

/ˌɑ kəˈpɛl.ə/

Groups of teens singing a cappella on street corners got recording contracts.

(music) In a manner of a choir with no instrumental accompaniment; literally, "in the style of the (Sistine) Chapel (in Rome)", such as a musical Mass done a cappella.

a cappella

performed by a choir with no instrumental accompaniment


a cappella

/ˌɑ kəˈpɛl.ə/

An a cappella group sang during the wedding reception.

(music) Singing solely or mainly without instrumental accompaniment.

清唱

singing solely or mainly without instrumental accompaniment

Socially, a cappella groups tend to be tight-knit ensembles in which close interpersonal relationships are formed.

2012, Joshua S. Duchan, Powerful Voices, page 2

(music, US) Related to a form of purely vocal music mostly associated with American college performance groups.


house

→ Belarusian: гаўс (haŭs)

→ Bulgarian: хаус (haus)

→ Catalan: house

→⇒ Chinese: 浩室音樂／浩室音乐 (hàoshì yīnyuè)

→ Czech: house

→ Danish: house

→ Dutch: house

→ Esperanto: haŭzo

→ Estonian: house

→ Finnish: house

→ French: house

→ Galician: house

→ Georgian: ჰაუსი (hausi)

→ German: House

→ Greek: χάουζ (cháouz)

→ Hungarian: house

→ Icelandic: house

→ Indonesian: house

→ Italian: house

→ Japanese: ハウス (hausu)

→ Korean: 하우스 (hauseu)

→ Latvian: hauss

→ Lithuanian: house

→ Lombard: house

→ Norwegian Bokmål: house

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: house

→ Occitan: house

→ Polish: house

→ Portuguese: house

→ Quechua: house

→ Romanian: house

→ Russian: ха́ус (xáus)

→ Serbo-Croatian: хауз, house

→ Slovak: house

→ Slovene: house

→ Spanish: house

→ Swedish: house

→ Turkish: house

→ Ukrainian: хауз (xauz)

→ Welsh: House

→ West Frisian: house

Probably from The Warehouse, a nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, USA, where the music became popular around 1985.

[…] their music is influenced as much by Roxy Music and the Ramones as it is by house and techno pioneers.

1998, Colin Larkin, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music, London: Virgin Books, page 73

And while hard, minimal techno has become increasingly influenced by house and Oval-esque "glitch" stylistics, Exos keeps it old school on Strength, infusing his own style with the force of hard techno purists Surgeon and Oliver Ho.

2001 March, Philip Sherburne, “Exos, Strength [album review]”, in CMJ New Music Monthly, number 91, Great Neck, N.Y.: College Media, →ISSN, page 66

The first genre of American dance music to become popular in the United Kingdom was Chicago house. Although music from Detroit was soon imported as well, it was often treated as subcategory of house, and for many years the most common English term for electronic dance music in general was "house" or "acid house". […] During the formative years of techno and house, the musicians involved interacted in various ways.

2006, Mark Jonathan Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, page 45


sharp

en-adj

sharp (comparative sharper, superlative sharpest)

sharper (comparative)
sharpest (superlative)

bland

antonym(s) of “having an intense and acrid flavour”

From Middle English scharp, from Old English sċearp, from Proto-West Germanic *skarp, from Proto-Germanic *skarpaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kerb-, from *(s)ker- (“to cut”).
Cognate with West Frisian skerp, Low German scharp, Dutch scherp, German scharf, Danish skarp. Compare Irish cearb (“keen; cutting”), Latin acerbus (“tart, bitter”), Tocharian B kärpye (“rough”), Latvian skârbs (“sharp, rough”), Russian щерба (ščerba, “notch”), Polish szczerba (“gap, dent, jag, chip, nick, notch”), Albanian harb (“rudeness”). More at shear.

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

(music) Raised by one semitone (denoted by the symbol ♯ after the name of the note).

The orchestra's third violin several times was sharp about an eighth of a tone.


sharp

I didn't enjoy the concert much because the soprano sang sharp on all the high notes.

1867, Dutton Cook, Hobson's Choice, Chapter 8, “Music Hath Charms”, p. 72 https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hobson_s_Choice/hwhhEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Matilda+Milner+frequently+sang+sharp%22&pg=PA72&printsec=frontcover
Whereas Matilda Milner frequently sang sharp, in spite of the efforts of Miss Brown, who played the accompaniment, to give her the right note and keep her in tune.

(music) In a higher pitch than is correct or desirable.

liiga kõrgelt

in a higher pitch than is correct or desirable


sharp

The pitch pipe sounded out a perfect F♯ (F sharp).

Transposition frequently is harder to read because of all the sharps and flats on the staff.

(music) The symbol ♯, placed after the name of a note in the key signature or before a note on the staff to indicate that the note is to be played one chromatic semitone higher.

(music) A note that is played one chromatic semitone higher than usual; denoted by the name of the note that is followed by the symbol ♯.

The piece was difficult to read after it had been transposed, since in the new key many notes were sharps.

(music) A note that is sharp in a particular key.

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is written in C♯ minor (C sharp minor.)

(music) The scale having a particular sharp note as its tonic.


sharp

en-verb

sharp (third-person singular simple present sharps, present participle sharping, simple past and past participle sharped)

sharps (present singular third-person)
sharping (participle present)
sharped (participle past)
sharped (past)

That new musician must be tone deaf: he sharped half the notes of the song!

(music) To raise the pitch of a note half a step making a natural note a sharp.


stroke

The noun is derived from Middle English strok, stroke (“blow from a weapon, cut”), from Old English strāc, from Proto-West Germanic *straik, from Proto-Germanic *straikaz (“stroke”), from Proto-Indo-European *streyg- (“to rub, stroke; to shear; to strike”).
Sense 3.6.2.2 (“the oblique, slash, or virgule (‘/’)”) is a contraction of oblique stroke, a variant of oblique which was originally used in telegraphy.
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* German Streich (“stroke”)
* Middle Low German strēk (“stroke, trick, prank”)
* Scots strak, strake, straik (“blow, stroke”)

isku

one of a series of beats or movements against a resisting medium, by means of which movement through or upon it is accomplished

ход

single movement or thrust of a part (such as a piston) of a machine that moves back and forth; length of this movement

خَطّ

line or mark made on a surface by an implement for drawing, writing, etc.

(music) A bow or pluck of a string or strings of a stringed instrument; also, the manner in which a musical instrument is played; hence, a melody, a tune.


c

(music) The middle tone in either one of the sets of seven white keys on a keyboard or a set of seven strings on a stringed instrument.


burden

Inherited from Middle English burdoun (“accompaniment”), from Old French bordon (“drone”), from Medieval Latin burdō. Doublet of bourdon.

inh+

As commonly used, the refrain, or burden, not only is limited to lyric verse, but depends for its impression upon the force of monotone - both in sound and thought.

1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition

(music) A phrase or theme that recurs at the end of each verse in a folk song or ballad.


instrumental

en-adj

instrumental (comparative more instrumental, superlative most instrumental)

more instrumental (comparative)
most instrumental (superlative)

From Middle English instrumental, instrumentale, from Medieval Latin īnstrūmentālis.

instrumental music

An instrumental part

Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental sounds.

c. 1700, John Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia

(music) Pertaining to, made by, or prepared for an instrument, especially a musical instrument (rather than the human voice).


instrumental

I recommend this album in the face of the fact that five of the eleven songs are the purest filler, dull instrumentals with a harmonica rifling over an indifferent rhythm section. The rest is magnificent […]

(music) A composition written or performed without lyrics or singing, using a lead instrument to replace vocals.


play

en-verb

play (third-person singular simple present plays, present participle playing, simple past and past participle played)

plays (present singular third-person)
playing (participle present)
played (participle past)
played (past)

desc

→ Kashubian: plejowac (Canada, United States)

From Middle English pleyen, playen, pleȝen, plæien, also Middle English plaȝen, plawen (compare English plaw), from Old English pleġan, pleoġan, plæġan, and Old English plegian, pleagian, plagian (“to play, exercise, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *plehan (“to care about, be concerned with”) and Proto-West Germanic *plegōn (“to engage, move”); both perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *blek- (“to move, move about”), from Proto-Indo-European *bal- (compare Ancient Greek βλύω (blúō), βλύζω (blúzō, “I gush out, spring”), Sanskrit बल्बलीति (balbalīti, “it whirls, twirls”)).
cognates and related terms
Cognate with Scots play (“to act or move briskly, cause to move, stir”), Saterland Frisian pleegje (“to look after, care for, maintain”), West Frisian pleegje, pliigje (“to commit, perform, bedrive”), Middle Dutch pleyen ("to dance, leap for joy, rejoice, be glad"; compare Modern Dutch pleien (“to play a particular children's game”)), Dutch plegen (“to commit, bedrive, practice”), German pflegen (“to care for, be concerned with, attend to, tend”). Related also to Old English plēon (“to risk, endanger”). More at plight, pledge.
The noun is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, plega, plæġa (“play, quick motion, movement, exercise; (athletic) sport, game; festivity, drama; battle; gear for games, an implement for a game; clapping with the hands, applause”), deverbative of plegian (“to play”); see above.

gloss

compare English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">plaw</i>

gloss

"to dance, leap for joy, rejoice, be glad"; compare Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">pleien</i> (“to play a particular children's game”)

cog

His latest film is playing in the local theatre tomorrow.

Some kind of lounge music was playing in the background.

(transitive, intransitive) To produce sound (especially music), moving pictures, or theatrical performance.

(intransitive, of a theatrical performance, film or music) To be performed, reproduced, or shown.


key

From Middle English keye, kaye, keiȝe, from Old English cǣġ (“key, solution, experiment”) (whence also Scots key and kay (“key”)), of uncertain origin. The only sure cognates are Saterland Frisian Koai (“key”), West Frisian kaai (“key”), and North Frisian kay (“key”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *kēgaz, *kēguz (“stake, post, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵogʰ-, *ǵegʰ-, *ǵegʰn- (“branch, stake, bush”), which would make it cognate with Middle Low German kāk (“whipping post, pillory”), and perhaps to Middle Dutch keige (“javelin, spear”) and Middle Low German keie, keige (“spear”). For the semantic development, note that medieval keys were simply long poles (ending in a hook) with which a crossbar obstructing a door from the inside could be removed from the outside, by lifting it through a hole in the door. Liberman has noted, however, "The original meaning of *kaig-jo- was presumably '*pin with a twisted end.' Words with the root *kai- followed by a consonant meaning 'crooked, bent; twisted' are common only in the North Germanic languages."

шпи́лка

object used to maintain the orientation between two others

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

In musical instruments, one of the valve levers used to select notes, such as a lever opening a hole on a woodwind.

In instruments with a keyboard such as an organ or piano, one of the levers, or especially the exposed front end of it, which are depressed to cause a particular sound or note to be produced.

(music) A scale or group of pitches constituting the basis of a musical composition.

In musical theory, the total melodic and harmonic relations, which exist between the tones of an ideal scale, major or minor; tonality.

In musical theory and notation, the tonality centering in a given tone, or the several tones taken collectively, of a given scale, major or minor.

In musical notation, a sign at the head of a staff indicating the musical key.

the key of B-flat major

A girl, it is true, has always lived in a glass house among reproving relatives, whose word was law; she has been bred up to sacrifice her judgments and take the key submissively from dear papa; and it is wonderful how swiftly she can change her tune into the husband's.

1881, R.L. Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque


hammer

From Middle English hamer, from Old English hamor, from Proto-West Germanic *hamar, from Proto-Germanic *hamaraz (“tool with a stone head”) (compare West Frisian hammer, Low German Hamer, Dutch hamer, German Hammer, Danish hammer, Swedish hammare). This is traditionally ascribed to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱmoros, from *h₂éḱmō (“stone”), but see *hamaraz for further discussion.
(declare a defaulter on the stock exchange): Originally signalled by knocking with a wooden mallet.

sense

The sound the piano makes comes from the hammers striking the strings

(music) In a piano or dulcimer, a piece of wood covered in felt that strikes the string.


note

en-noun

note (countable and uncountable, plural notes)

From Middle English note, from Old English not, nōt (“note, mark, sign”) and Old French note (“letter, note”), both from Latin nota (“mark, sign, remark, note”).

A character, variously formed, to indicate the length of a tone, and variously placed upon the staff to indicate its pitch.

но́та

character indicating the length and pitch of a tone

As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.

1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

A musical sound; a tone; an utterance; a tune.

(by extension) A key of the piano or organ.

We heard the peculiar note of the woodcock, which resembles the repeated croaking of the frog, followed by a sharp hissing sound, somewhat like the noisy chirping of the wagtail[.]

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85

(by extension) A call or song of a bird.

(rhythm games) An indication which players have to click, type, hit, tap or do other actions if it appears


stop

en-verb

stop (third-person singular simple present stops, present participle stopping, simple past and past participle stopped)

stops (present singular third-person)
stopping (participle present)
stopped (participle past)
stopped (past)
stop (infinitive)

continue

antonym(s) of “to cause to cease moving”

continue

antonym(s) of “to cause to come to an end”

→ Finnish: stop

→ French: stop

→ Greek: στοπ (stop)

→ Hungarian: stop

→ Irish: stop

→ Italian: stop

→ Latvian: stop

→ Ottoman Turkish: استوپ (istop)

→ Polish: stop

→ Portuguese: stop

→ Russian: стоп (stop)

→ Spanish: stop

→ Welsh: stopio

→ Tok Pisin: stap

From Middle English stoppen, stoppien, from Old English stoppian (“to stop, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn, from Proto-Germanic *stuppōną (“to stop, close”), *stuppijaną (“to push, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-, *(s)tewb- (“to push; stick”), from *(s)tew- (“to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian stopje (“to stop, block”), West Frisian stopje (“to stop”), Dutch stoppen (“to stop”), Low German stoppen (“to stop”), German stopfen (“to be filling, stuff”), German stoppen (“to stop”), Danish stoppe (“to stop”), Swedish stoppa (“to stop”), Icelandic stoppa (“to stop”), Middle High German stupfen, stüpfen (“to pierce”). More at stuff, stump.
Alternative etymology derives Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn from an assumed Vulgar Latin *stūpāre, *stuppāre (“to stop up with tow”), from stūpa, stīpa, stuppa (“tow, flax, oakum”), from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē, “tow, flax, oakum”). This derivation, however, is doubtful, as the earliest instances of the Germanic verb do not carry the meaning of "stuff, stop with tow". Rather, these senses developed later in response to influence from similar sounding words in Latin and Romance.

megakadályoz

to cause to cease progressing, to prevent

if you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging

(music) To regulate the sounds of (musical strings, etc.) by pressing them against the fingerboard with the finger, or otherwise shortening the vibrating part.

tepışten

music: to regulate the sounds by shortening the vibrating part


stop

The organ is loudest when all the stops are pulled.

(music) A knob or pin used to regulate the flow of air in an organ.

rekisteritappi

music: knob or pin to regulate the flow of air in an organ

(music) One of the vent-holes in a wind instrument, or the place on the wire of a stringed instrument, by the stopping or pressing of which certain notes are produced.


home

From Middle English hōm, from Old English hām, from Proto-West Germanic *haim, from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (“home, village”), from Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos (“village, home”), from the root *tḱey-. Doublet of heyem.
cognates
Germanic cognates: see *haimaz.
Cognate with Irish caoimh (“dear”), Lithuanian kaimas (“village”), šeima (“family”), Albanian komb (“nation, people”), Old Church Slavonic сѣмь (sěmĭ, “seed”), Ancient Greek κώμη (kṓmē, “village”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie”) (compare Hittite [script needed] (kittari, “it lies”), Ancient Greek κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie down”), Latin civis (“citizen”), Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬉𐬙𐬈 (saēte, “he lies, rests”), Sanskrit शये (śáye, “he lies”)).

cog

it takes a heap of living to make a house a home

it takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home

it takes a lot of living to make a house a home

(music, informal) The chord at which a melody starts and to which it can resolve.


pipe

→ Bengali: পাইপ (paip)

desc

→ Gulf Arabic: پيپ (pēp, bēb, “smoking pipe”), پايپ (pāyp, bāyb, “medium of transportation (sense 2.1)”)

→ Hindi: पाइप (pāip)

→ Japanese: パイプ (paipu)

→ Korean: 파이프 (paipeu)

→ Malay: paip

→ Maori: paipa

→ Russian: пайп (pajp)

→ Urak Lawoi': ปาเฮะ (pahëq)

From Middle English pīpe, pype (“hollow cylinder or tube used as a conduit or container; duct or vessel of the body; musical instrument; financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, pipe roll”), from Old English pīpe (“pipe (musical instrument); the channel of a small stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīpā. Reinforced by Vulgar Latin *pīpa, from Latin pipire, pipiare, pipare, from pīpiō (“to chirp, peep”), of imitative origin. Doublet of fife.
The “storage container” and “liquid measure” senses are derived from Middle English pīpe (“large storage receptacle, particularly for wine; cask, vat; measure of volume”), from pīpe (above) and Old French pipe (“liquid measure”). In specific contexts, calques similar units of measure such as Portuguese pipa.
The verb is from Middle English pīpen, pypyn (“to play a pipe; to make a shrill sound; to speak with a high-pitched tone”), from Old English pīpian (“to pipe”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

inh

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side,
The summer's gone and all the roses falling,
It's you, it's you must go and I must bide.

1913, “Danny Boy: Song Adapted from an Old Irish Air”, Fred[eric] E[dward] Weatherly (lyrics), New York, N.Y., London: Boosey & Co […], →OCLC, page 1

(music) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.

Most theater organs use many sets (ranks) of reed and flue pipes of various shapes, pipe scales, and so forth to generate a variety of timbres.

1980, Harvey E[lliott] White, Donald H. White, “Wind Instruments”, in Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound, Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders College Pub./Holt, Rinehart and Winston, page 245; republished Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2014, part 3 (Musical Instruments), section 18.7 (The Theater Organ), page 245

(music) A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.


cycle

→ Japanese: サイクル (saikuru)

From Middle English cicle (“fixed length period of years”), from Late Latin cyclus, from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), from Proto-Hellenic *kúklos, *kʷókʷlos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“circle, wheel”).
Doublet of cyclus and wheel (see there for more).

pyörä

bicycle, tricycle, motorcycle etc. — see also bicycle

The interval cycle C4 consists of the pitch classes 0, 4 and 8; when starting on E, it is realised as the pitches E, G# and C.

(music) In musical set theory, an interval cycle is the set of pitch classes resulting from repeatedly applying the same interval class to the starting pitch class.


drag

en-noun

drag (countable and uncountable, plural drags)

From Middle English draggen (“to drag”), early Middle English dragen (“to draw, carry”), confluence of Old English dragan (“to drag, draw, draw oneself, go, protract”) and Old Norse draga (“to draw, attract”); both from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰregʰ- (“to draw, drag”).
Verb sense influenced due to association with the noun drag (“that which is hauled or dragged”), related to Low German dragge (“a drag-anchor, grapnel”). Cognate with Danish drægge (“to dredge”), Danish drage (“to draw, attract”), Swedish dragga (“to drag, drag anchor, sweep”), Swedish draga (“to draw, go”), Icelandic draga (“to drag, pull”). Doublet of draw.

cog

(countable, music) A double drum-stroke played at twice the speed of the context in which it is placed.

“Our music is not like some other types where the energy is back and forth – music considered drag is like giving up oneself, to be pulled and controlled,” she says.

2010 March 8, Scott Wright, quoting Heather Marlatt, “Scene and heard: Drag”, in The Guardian

Whatever the appellation, these artists are doing some amazing stuff. Haunted house and drag are probably the most apposite terms because the music sounds like ghostly apparitions of old dance tunes, only at half-speed.

2010 September 29, Paul Lester, “New band of the day - No 877: oOoOO”, in The Guardian

They call this music drag because it's like dance music dragged down by the ponderous weight of existence (there's a Balam Acab track called Heavy Living Things); they call it witch house because it haunts you long after you stop listening.

2010 December 2, Paul Lester, “New band of the day – No 922: Balam Acab”, in The Guardian

In your own words, what is drag or witch house music?

2011 January 24, David Wicik, “Exorcising the Ghost: oOoOO breaks down the buzz about “drag””, in Newcity


drag

en-verb

drag (third-person singular simple present drags, present participle dragging, simple past and past participle dragged or (dialectal) drug)

drags (present singular third-person)
dragging (participle present)
dragged (participle past)
dragged (past)
drug (dialectal participle past)
drug (dialectal past)

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

(intransitive, music) To play at a slower tempo than one is supposed to or than the other musicians one is playing with, or to inadvertently gradually decrease tempo while one is playing.


synthesizer

→ Hebrew: סינתיסייזר (síntesaizer)

سِنْثِسَيْزَر

music: an electronic instrument module without a keyboard

(music) An electronic musical instrument that creates its sounds with electronics and generally is played via a keyboard.

sintetizues

music: an electronic keyboard instrument

(music) An electronic instrument consisting of a module, or a set of modules, that creates its sounds with electronics and does not have any keyboard.


accentuation

en-noun

accentuation (countable and uncountable, plural accentuations)

From Late Latin accentuatio. Compare French accentuation. Equivalent to accentuate + -ion.

(ecclesiastical, music) Pitch or modulation of the voice in reciting portions of the liturgy.


sequence

en-verb

sequence (third-person singular simple present sequences, present participle sequencing, simple past and past participle sequenced)

sequences (present singular third-person)
sequencing (participle present)
sequenced (participle past)
sequenced (past)

From Middle English sequence, borrowed from Old French sequence (“a sequence of cards, answering verses”), from Late Latin sequentia (“a following”), from Latin sequens (“following”), from sequi (“to follow”); see sequent.

der

(transitive, music) To produce (music) with a sequencer.


group

→ Gulf Arabic: قروب (grūp)

→ Japanese: グループ (gurūpu)

→ Korean: 그룹 (geurup)

→ Tongan: kulupu

From French groupe (“cluster, group”), from Italian gruppo, groppo (“a knot, heap, group, bag (of money)”), from Vulgar Latin *cruppo, Renaissance Latin grupus, from Frankish *krupp, from Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“lump, round mass, body, crop”), from Proto-Indo-European *grewb- (“to crumple, bend, crawl”). In the sense of group theory coined (in French, as groupe) by Évariste Galois.
Cognate with German Kropf (“crop, craw, bunch”); Old English cropp, croppa (“cluster, bunch, sprout, flower, berry, ear of corn, crop”) (whence English crop); Dutch krop (“craw”), Icelandic kroppr (“hump, bunch”). Doublet of crop and croup.

(music) A number of eighth, sixteenth, etc., notes joined at the stems; sometimes rather indefinitely applied to any ornament made up of a few short notes.


squelch

en-noun

squelch (countable and uncountable, plural squelches)

Unknown. Perhaps a blend of squash + quell + quench. Compare also English squolsh, English squoosh.

Through a process of experimentation the 'acid squelch' sound came forth, which was recorded and passed on to DJ Ron Hardy to play at his Warehouse club.

1998, Colin Larkin, The Virgin Encyclopedia of Dance Music, page 91

(countable, music) A kind of electronic beat or sound mainly used in acid house and related music genres.


SW

(handbells) Abbreviation of swing: to play the bell in a normal position, swing it down to the waist, then bring it back up


spider

spider (countable and uncountable, plural spiders)

[ˈspʌɪ̯ɾə(ɹ)]

From Middle English spiþre, spydyr, spider, spiþer, from Old English spīþra (“spider”), from Proto-West Germanic *spinþrijō, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”). Mostly displaced attercop (“spider, unpleasant person”), now a dialectal term.

(music) Part of a resonator instrument that transmits string vibrations from the bridge to a resonator cone at multiple points.


pitch

pitch (countable and uncountable, plural pitches)

Unknown. Perhaps from the above sense of "inclination", "level", or "degree", or influenced by it.

The pitch of middle "C" is familiar to many musicians.

(music, phonetics) The perceived frequency of a sound or note.

Are we in baroque pitch for this one?

(music) The standard to which a group of musical instruments are tuned or in which a piece is performed, usually by reference to the frequency to which the musical note A above middle C is tuned.

Bob, our pitch, let out a clear middle "C" and our conductor gave the signal to start.

(music) In an a cappella group, the singer responsible for singing a note for the other members to tune themselves by.


tres

Borrowed from Spanish tres (“three”). Doublet of three and trey.

(music) A three-course stringed instrument similar to a guitar; the Cuban variant has six strings, and the Puerto Rican has nine.


division

division (countable and uncountable, plural divisions)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English divisioun, from Old French division, from Latin dīvīsiō, dīvīsiōnem, noun of process form from perfect passive participle dīvīsus (“divided”), from dīvidō (“divide”). Doublet of divisio.

remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

(music) A florid instrumental variation of a melody in the 17th and 18th centuries, originally conceived as the dividing of each of a succession of long notes into several short ones.

(music) A set of pipes in a pipe organ which are independently controlled and supplied.


TV

TV (countable and uncountable, plural TVs)

→ Thai: ทีวี (tii-wii)

→ Vietnamese: ti vi

(pop culture, music) Initialism of Taylor's Version.


genus

genus (plural genera or (both nonstandard) genuses or genusses)

genera (plural)
genuses (nonstandard plural)
genusses (nonstandard plural)

→ Malayalam: ജീനസ് (jīnasŭ)

→ Swahili: jenasi

→ Thai: สกุล (sà-gun) (semantic loan)

Borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, origin, a race, sort, kind”) from the root gen- in Latin gignō (“to beget, produce”). Doublet of gender, genre, and kin.

genus

rank in a taxonomic classification between family and species

en:type of tuning or intonation in music

(music) A type of tuning or intonation, used within an Ancient Greek tetrachord.


CC

en-noun

CC (countable and uncountable, plural CCs)

(music, MIDI) Initialism of control change.


metre

en-verb

metre (third-person singular simple present metres, present participle metring, simple past and past participle metred)

metres (present singular third-person)
metring (participle present)
metred (participle past)
metred (past)

From Old English, from Latin metrum, from Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure, rule, length, size, poetic metre”).

der

(poetry, music) To put into metrical form.


accentor

From Latin accentor (“one who sings with another”), from ad + cantor (“singer”), from canō (“sing”). Superficially accent + -or.

bor

(music, obsolete) One who sings the leading part; the director or leader.


accelerando

en-noun

accelerando (plural accelerandos or accelerandoes)

accelerandos (plural)
accelerandoes (plural)

/æksɛləˈɹændəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian accelerando, from Latin accelero.

(music) A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played at an increasing speed.


accelerando

/æksɛləˈɹændəʊ/

(music) With a gradual increase in speed.


idea

idea (plural ideas or (philosophy, rare) ideæ)

→ Japanese: アイディア (aidia), アイデア (aidea)

Borrowed from Latin idea (“a (Platonic) idea; archetype”), from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “notion, pattern”), from εἴδω (eídō, “I see”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know; see”). Cognate with French idée. Doublet of idée. Related to idol, idolum, and eidolon.

der

(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.


natural

en-adj

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

more natural (comparative)
most natural (superlative)

/ˈnæt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl/

From Middle English natural, borrowed from Old French natural, naturel, from Latin nātūrālis, from nātus, the perfect participle of nāscor (“be born”, verb). Displaced native Old English ġecynde.

luonnollinen

that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem

There's a wrong note here: it should be C natural instead of C sharp.

(music) Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮.

Existing in nature.
Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮.


natural

/ˈnæt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl/

(music) A note that is not or is no longer to be modified by an accidental.

(music) The symbol ♮ used to indicate such a natural note.


ta

Altered from si in the 19th century to prevent having two notes of the musical scale starting with the same letter, to become ti. vowel changed to 'a' to signify a flattened note.

(music) In solfège, the lowered seventh note of a major scale (the note B-flat in the fixed-do system): te.


platinum

en-noun

platinum (countable and uncountable, plural platinums)

From Spanish platina (“little silver”) del Pinto ("of the Pinto") + -um. It was called "little" (or "lesser") silver because the metal was found as an impurity in gold, and del Pinto for the Pinto River in Grand Columbia where Europeans discovered it being mined by Native Americans.

(music) A single or album that has achieved platinum sales, i.e. over 1 million or 2 million.

platinplade

recording that has achieved platinum sales


dord

Borrowed from Irish dord (“buzz, drone; dord”).

bor+

[…] there, after digging to a good depth, they find the Dord or great war-horn of Fionn, a blast on which brings “a flock of furious gigantic birds,” and a thigh of one of them is found to be as big as a sheep’s.

1869, “Folk-lore: Myths and Tales of Various Peoples”, in The London Quarterly & Holborn Review, volume 31, pages 62–63

[…] the first album on which the dord and the didgeridoo could be heard together was entitled: ‘Two stories in One: (Natural Symphonies)’.

1994, Dirk Schellberg, Didgeridoo: Ritual Origins and Playing Techniques, page 46

The dord, a form of horn with a sound like the Australian Aborigine’s didgeridoo, was clearly a sacred instrument of the Bronze Age […]

2002, Philip Carr-Gomm, Druid Mysteries: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century, page 64

(music) A type of ancient Irish war-horn.


li

Altered from la, with the vowel changed to signify a raised note.

(music) In solfège, the raised sixth note of a major scale (the note A-sharp in the fixed-do system).


line

→ Scottish Gaelic: loidhne

From Middle English line, lyne, from Old English līne (“line, cable, rope, hawser, series, row, rule, direction”), from Proto-West Germanic *līnā, from Proto-Germanic *līnǭ (“line, rope, flaxen cord, thread”), from Proto-Germanic *līną (“flax, linen”), from Proto-Indo-European *līno- (“flax”).
Influenced in Middle English by Middle French ligne (“line”), from Latin linea. More at linen.
The oldest sense of the word is “rope, cord, thread”; from this the senses “path”, “continuous mark” were derived.

lyn

path through two or more points, threadlike mark

lyn

single horizontal row of text on a screen, printed paper, etc.

linja

measure of length, the main division of an inch or its local equivalent

A path through two or more points (compare ‘segment’); a continuous mark, including as made by a pen; any path, curved or straight.

(music) One of the straight horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are placed.

regel

music: one of the straight horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are placed

Students and the instructor sing the harmony line while the instructor plays the melody line on the piano.

2015, Mícheál Houlahan, Philip Tacka, Kodály in the Third Grade Classroom

(music) A series of notes forming a certain part (such as the bass or melody) of a greater work.


SO

symphony orchestra
symphony orchestra#English

(music) Initialism of symphony orchestra.


augmentation

en-noun

augmentation (countable and uncountable, plural augmentations)

From Middle English augmentation, augmentacion, augmentacioun, from Old French augmentacion, from Latin augmentātiō, verbal noun from augmentō (“increase”, verb).

(music) A compositional technique where the composer lengthens the melody by lengthening its note values.


accompanist

First attested in 1833. From accompany + -ist.

(music) The performer in music who takes the accompanying part.

akkompagnatør

performer who takes the accompanying part


segue

en-verb

segue (third-person singular simple present segues, present participle segueing, simple past and past participle segued)

segues (present singular third-person)
segueing (participle present)
segued (participle past)
segued (past)

Borrowed from Italian segue (“it follows”), from seguire (“to follow”), from Latin sequor; originally a term used in a musical score to indicate that the next movement or passage is to follow without a break. Cognate with Spanish seguir. Doublet of sue. Related to suit and sequence.

Beethoven’s symphonies effortlessly segue from one theme to the next.

(music) To make a smooth transition from one theme to another.


twee

From a childish pronunciation of sweet. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use in 1905 in Punch.

Even the wider world got its doses of twee sound, from the fluffy pop of Aztec Camera to the stylish bounce of the Railway Children.

2005 October 24, Nitsuh Abebe, “Twee as Fuck”, in Pitchfork

Wang points out the very clear links between twee and queer culture, as many 90s twee bands “played alongside queercore bands like Team Dresch.[…]”

2022 January 25, katie tobin, quoting Ian Wang, “Clutch Your Pearls, the Indie Twee Aesthetic is Back”, in Vice


funkadelic

en-adj

funkadelic (comparative more funkadelic, superlative most funkadelic)

more funkadelic (comparative)
most funkadelic (superlative)

/ˌfʌŋkəˈdɛlɪk/

It's more or less what we call funkadelic. It's a combination of R&B, psychedelic, and funky African-type beat.

1969, Steve Wonder (interview) in "Coming of Age at Motown" (2002)


simultaneity

en-noun

simultaneity (countable and uncountable, plural simultaneities)

(music) More than one complete musical texture occurring at the same time. This first appeared in the music of Charles Ives, and is common in the music of Conlon Nancarrow, and others.


generator

/ˈdʒɛnəɹeɪtə(ɹ)/

From Latin, from past participle of genero (“beget, father”).

One who, or that which, generates, begets, causes, or produces.

(music) The principal sound or sounds by which others are produced; the fundamental note or root of the common chord; -- see also generating tone.

(music) An interval that is repeatedly stacked to obtain other pitches in tuning systems or scales.


crook

From Middle English croke, crok, from Old English *crōc (“hook, bend, crook”), from Proto-West Germanic *krōk, from Proto-Germanic *krōkaz (“bend, hook”), from Proto-Indo-European *greg- (“tracery, basket, bend”).
Cognate with Dutch kreuk (“a bend, fold, wrinkle”), Middle Low German kroke, krake (“fold, wrinkle”), Danish krog (“crook, hook”), Swedish krok (“crook, hook”), Icelandic krókur (“hook”).

der

(music) A small tube, usually curved, applied to a trumpet, horn, etc., to change its pitch or key.


wind instrument

en-noun

wind instrument (plural wind instruments)

Coordinate term: stringed instrument

(music) Any musical instrument that produces sound when air flows through it.


produce

en-verb

produce (third-person singular simple present produces, present participle producing, simple past and past participle produced)

produces (present singular third-person)
producing (participle present)
produced (participle past)
produced (past)

/pɹəˈd͡ʒuːs/

From Middle English produce, from Latin prōdūcō (“to lead forth”), from prō- (“forth, forward”) + dūcō (“to lead, bring”). The noun is derived from the verb.

highly produced sound

(music) To alter using technology, as opposed to simply performing.


hook

sometimes in Northern England and Ireland, otherwise obsolete

From Middle English hoke, from Old English hōc, from Proto-West Germanic *hōk, from Proto-Germanic *hōkaz, variant of *hakô (“hook”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kog-, *keg-, *keng- (“peg, hook, claw”).
Cognates
Compare West Frisian heak, Dutch haak (“hook”)) (compare West Frisian/Dutch hoek (“hook, angle, corner”), Low German Hook, Huuk); also related to hake.

The song's hook snared me.

Guitarist Jade Puget and vocalist Davey Havok have distilled AFI’s strengths (a ferocious, post-hardcore rhythmic backbone; goth-tinctured, post-punky guitars; and Havok’s desperate, dramatic croon) into 14 taut, hook-driven songs.

2017 January 20, Annie Zaleski, “AFI sounds refreshed and rejuvenated on its 10th album, AFI (The Blood Album)”, in The A.V. Club

(music) A catchy musical phrase which forms the basis of a popular song.


scalar

Borrowed from Latin scālāris, adjectival form from scāla (“a flight of steps, stairs, staircase, ladder, scale”), for *scadla, from scandere (“to climb”); compare scale. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1846.

coin

(music) Of or pertaining to a musical scale.


staff

en-noun

staff (countable and uncountable, plural staffs or staves or staff)

staffs (plural)
staves (plural)
staff (plural)

Token (railway signalling)#Staff and ticket

→ French: staff

→ Italian: staff

→ Japanese: スタッフ (sutaffu)

→ Korean: 스태프 (seutaepeu)

→ Malay: staf

desc

→ Portuguese: stafe, staff, estafe (Brazil)

→ Spanish: staff

From Middle English staf, from Old English stæf (“letter of the alphabet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stab, from Proto-Germanic *stabaz. Cognate with Dutch staf, German Stab, Swedish stav.
Sense of "group of military officers that assists a commander" and similar meanings, attested from 1702, is influenced by or is even from German Stab.

inh

(music, plural staffs or staves) A series of horizontal lines on which musical notes are written; a stave.

balk

music: horizontal lines on which notes are written


harp

From Middle English harpe, from Old English hearpe (“harp”), from Proto-West Germanic *harpā, from Proto-Germanic *harpǭ (“harp”). Cognate with Scots hairp (“harp”), West Frisian harpe, harp (“harp”), Low German Harp (“harp”), Dutch harp (“harp”), German Harfe (“harp”), Danish harpe (“harp”), Swedish harpa (“harp”).

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

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

(music) A musical instrument consisting of a body and a curved neck, strung with strings of varying length that are stroked or plucked with the fingers and are vertical to the soundboard when viewed from the end of the body

Any instrument of the same musicological type.

(music, colloquial) Any musical instrument.

A struck tuned percussion instrument of metal or wooden bars, especially as a function of a theatre organ.


tangent

Borrowed from Latin tangentem, the accusative of tangēns (“touching”) (in the phrase līnea tangēns (“a touching line”)), the present participle of the verb tangō (“touch”, verb), from Proto-Italic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).
Cognate with Old English þaccian (“to touch lightly, pat, stroke”). More at thack, thwack.

cog

(music) A small metal blade in a clavichord that strikes the strings to produce sound.


ti

Coined by English music educator Sarah Anna Glover in 1812 as an alteration of si for her solmization, made so that every note of solfège would begin with a different letter, from Middle English si (“seventh degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian si in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the initials of Latin Sāncte Iohannēs (“Saint John (the Baptist)”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

der

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


switch

→ Gulf Arabic: سويچ (swīč)

→ German: Switch

Perhaps from Middle Dutch swijch (“twig”). First attested in c. 1592.

камута́тар

system allowing the interconnection of telephone lines


seventeenth

(music) An interval of two octaves and a third.


hip-hop

(music) A form of popular and dance music featuring strong percussion and a powerful rhythm, usually accompanied by rapping.


violon

(music) A kind of organ stop producing a string-like sound.


belt

→ Afrikaans: belt

→ Assamese: বেল্ট (belto)

→ Bengali: বেল্ট (belṭo)

→ Dutch: belt

→ Hindi: बेल्ट (belṭ)

→ Irish: beilt

→ Japanese: ベルト (beruto)

→ Odia: ବେଲ୍ଟ୍ (belṭ)

→ Urdu: بیلٹ (belṭ)

→ Welsh: belt

From Middle English belt, from Old English belt (“belt, girdle”), from Proto-West Germanic *baltī̆, from Proto-Germanic *baltijaz (“girdle, belt”), from Latin balteus (“belt, sword-belt”), of Etruscan origin. Cognate with Scots belt (“belt”), Dutch belt, German Balz (“belt”), Danish bælte (“belt”), Swedish bälte (“belt, cincture, girdle, zone”) and Icelandic belti (“belt”).

cog

Both auditionees had great ranges but Diamond had the strong belt we really need for the finale.

As previously mentioned, there was unexpected behavior in laryngeal lowering for belt in several singers and unchanged laryngeal height for two, as well as stable opening or widening of the pharyngeal walls, which must be investigated further.

1999, Jeannette Lovetri, Susan Lesh, Peak Woo, “Preliminary Study on the Ability of Trained Singers to Control the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Laryngeal Musculature”, in Journal of Voice, volume 13, number 2, →DOI, page 226

In Clara's furious rant in Act II, Allsun broke out of her soprano into a belt, which made perfect sense in the moment.

2018, Norman Spivey, Mary Saunder Barton, Cross-Training in the Voice Studio: A Balancing Act, Plural Publishing, page 57

(music) A vocal tone produced by singing with chest voice above the break (or passaggio), in a range typically sung in head voice.


pop

en-noun

pop (countable and uncountable, plural pops)

From Middle English pop, poppe (“a blow; strike; buffet”) (> Middle English poppen (“to strike; thrust”, verb)), of onomatopoeic origin – used to describe the sound, or short, sharp actions. The physics sense is part of a facetious sequence "snap, crackle, pop", after the mascots of Rice Krispies cereal.

cog

(music) The pulling of a string away from the fretboard and releasing it so that it snaps back.


pop

en-verb

pop (third-person singular simple present pops, present participle popping, simple past and past participle popped)

pops (present singular third-person)
popping (participle present)
popped (participle past)
popped (past)

(music) To pull a string away from the fretboard and release it so that it snaps back.


la

From Glover's solmization, from Middle English la (“sixth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian la in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin labiī (“lip's”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

inh

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


bari

A basic 17-piece jazz orchestra never uses more than one bari; to see four lined up in a row you'd usually have to go to an instrument repair shop.

2000 November 24, Neil Tesser, “Baritone Nation”, in Chicago Reader

(colloquial, music) A baritone saxophone


noise

en-noun

noise (countable and uncountable, plural noises)

From Middle English noyse, noise, from Old French noise (“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”), of uncertain origin. According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense.

der

(music) A genre of rock music that uses static and other non-musical sounds, also influenced by art rock.

bruomuziko

genre of rock music using non-musical sounds


serpent

From Middle English serpent, from Old French serpent (“snake, serpent”), from Latin serpēns (“snake”), present active participle of serpere (“to creep, crawl”), from Proto-Italic *serpō, from Proto-Indo-European *serp-. In this sense, displaced native Old English nǣdre (“snake, serpent”), whence Modern English adder.
Compare Sanskrit सर्प (sarpa, “snake”), which is a descendant of the same Proto-Indo-European word as English serpent.

(music) An obsolete wind instrument in the brass family, whose shape is suggestive of a snake (Wikipedia article).


turnaround

en-noun

turnaround (countable and uncountable, plural turnarounds)

(music) A cadence linking the end of a verse to the beginning of the next.

(music) The notation for the addition of a grace note above then below a given note.


se

(music) A type of ancient Chinese plucked zither.


permutation

permutation (countable and uncountable, plural permutations)

/ˌpɜː.mjʉˈtæɪ.ʃən/

[ˌpɜː.mjʉˈtæɪ.ʃn̩]

From Middle English permutacioun, permutacyoun, from Old French permutacïon, promutatïon and Medieval Latin permūtātiōnem, accusative of permūtātiō.
Morphologically permute + -ation

(music) A transformation of a set's prime form, by applying one or more of certain operations, specifically, transposition, inversion, and retrograde.

permutaatio

music: transformation of a set's prime form


maestoso

en-adv

maestoso (comparative more maestoso, superlative most maestoso)

more maestoso (comparative)
most maestoso (superlative)


maestoso

(music) A passage to be played majestically.


side

en-noun

side (countable and uncountable, plural sides)

table
From Middle English side, from Old English sīde (“side, flank”), from Proto-Germanic *sīdǭ (“side, flank, edge, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēy- (“to send, throw, drop, sow, deposit”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Siede (“side”), West Frisian side (“side”), Dutch zijde, zij (“side”), German Low German Sied (“side”), German Seite (“side”), Danish and Norwegian side (“side”), Swedish sida (“side”).

der

know which side one's bread is buttered on

laugh out of the other side of one's mouth

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

the apples on the other side of the wall are the sweetest

the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

the grass is always greener on the other side of the road

But Bechet chafed under even the loose discipline of the Ellington group, and left. Through these years he wandered, making only a few sides, at the moment when jazz records were beginning to flood onto the market.

1995, James Lincoln Collier, Jazz: The American Theme Song, page 41

(music) A recorded piece of music; a record, especially in jazz.


glitch

en-noun

glitch (countable and uncountable, plural glitches)

Probably from Yiddish גליטש (glitsh), from German glitschig (“slippy”), from glitschen (“to slide, glide, slip”) + -ig (“-y”). Related to gleiten (“glide”). Cognate with French glisser (“to slip, slide, skid”).
Popularized in the 1960s, by the US space program. Attested in 1962 by American astronaut John Glenn, in reference to spikes in electrical current.

Coordinate term: noise

You can hear this in the contemporary genre of ‘glitch’, where artists like Oval and Fennesz make radically beautiful music using the snaps, crackles and pops emitted by damaged CDs, malfunctioning software, etc.

2011, Simon Reynolds, Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop, Soft Skull Press, page 313

(uncountable, music) A genre of experimental electronic music since the 1990s, characterized by a deliberate use of sonic artifacts that would normally be viewed as unwanted noise.


pizzicato

Borrowed from Italian pizzicato, past participle of pizzicare (“to pluck”).

(music) To be played by plucking the strings instead of using the bow.


pizzicato

pizzicato (plural pizzicatos or pizzicati)

The music is weaving / Haunting notes, pizzicato strings

“Trapeze” begins with pizzicatos that plunge into a circuslike cacophony with rapid trills, busy, clashing textures and motion in every direction.

2007 May 7, Vivien Schweitzer, “Players With No Conductor and, Increasingly, With No Fear”, in New York Times


aggregate

aggregate (countable and uncountable, plural aggregates)

/ˈæɡ.ɹɪ.ɡət/

From Latin aggregātus, perfect passive participle of aggregō (“I flock together”), from ag- (combining form of ad (“to, toward”)) + gregō (“I flock or group”), from grex (“flock”). Compare gregarious.

(music) The full chromatic scale of twelve equal tempered pitches.

the full chromatic or the set of all twelve pitch classes


dynamic

en-adj

dynamic (comparative more dynamic, superlative most dynamic)

more dynamic (comparative)
most dynamic (superlative)

static

antonym(s) of “Changing, active, in motion”

From French dynamique, from Ancient Greek δυναμικός (dunamikós, “powerful”), from δύναμις (dúnamis, “power”), from δύναμαι (dúnamai, “I am able”).

der

The dynamic marking in bar 40 is forte.

(music) Having to do with the volume of sound.


dynamic

If you pay attention to the dynamics as you play, it's a very moving piece.

(music) The varying loudness or volume of a song or the markings that indicate the loudness.

(music) A symbol in a musical score that indicates the desired level of volume.


forte

This passage is forte, then there's a diminuendo to mezzo piano.

(music) Loud. Used as a dynamic directive in sheet music in its abbreviated form, "f.", to indicate raising the volume of the music. (Abbreviated in musical notation with an f, the Unicode character 1D191.)


forte

The musicians played the passage forte.


tie

From Middle English teye (“cord, chain”), from Old English tēag, tēah (“cord, chain”), from Proto-West Germanic *taugu, from Proto-Germanic *taugō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk-. Compare Danish tov, Icelandic taug.

(music) A curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch denoting that they should be played as a single note with the combined length of both notes.

boog

curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch, combining their lengths


tie

en-verb

tie (third-person singular simple present ties, present participle tying, simple past and past participle tied)

ties (present singular third-person)
tying (participle present)
tied (participle past)
tied (past)

From Middle English teien, teiȝen, from Old English tīġan, tīeġan, from Proto-West Germanic *taugijan, from Proto-Germanic *taugijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to tug, draw”). Cognate with Icelandic teygja.

der

(music) To unite (musical notes) with a line or slur in the notation.


drone

From Middle English drounen (“to roar, bellow”), from Proto-West Germanic *drunnjan, from Proto-Germanic *drunjaną (“to drone, roar, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“to roar, hum, drone”).
Cognate with Scots drune (“to drone, moan, complain”), Dutch dreunen (“to drone, boom, thud”), Low German drönen (“to drone, buzz, hum”), German dröhnen (“to roar, boom, rumble”), Danish drøne (“to roar, boom, peel out”), Swedish dröna (“to low, bellow, roar”), Icelandic drynja (“to roar”).

cog

(music) One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.

(music, uncountable) A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds.


score

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

From Middle English score, skore, schore, from Old English scoru (“notch; tally; score”), from Old Norse skor, from Proto-Germanic *skurō (“incision; tear; rift”), which is related to *skeraną (“to cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“cut”). Cognate with Icelandic skora, Swedish skåra, Danish skår. Related to shear.
For the sense “twenty”: The mark on a tally made by drovers for every twenty beasts passing through a tollgate.

der

(music) The written form of a musical composition showing all instrumental and vocal parts.

Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.

2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55


score

en-verb

score (third-person singular simple present scores, present participle scoring, simple past and past participle scored)

scores (present singular third-person)
scoring (participle present)
scored (participle past)
scored (past)
score (infinitive)

→⇒ Irish: scóráil

Godfather II is nothing like ready. It is not yet scored, and thus not mixed. There remain additional shooting, looping, editing.

1974, New York Magazine, volume 7, number 45, page 98

Robertson scored several of Scorsese’s films, including Raging Bull, Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.

2023 August 10, Adrian Horton, “Robbie Robertson, member of the Band, dies at age 80”, in The Guardian, UK

(transitive, music, film) To provide (a film, etc.) with a musical score.

soitintaa

to provide a film, etc. with a musical score


achromatic

en-adj

achromatic (comparative more achromatic, superlative most achromatic)

more achromatic (comparative)
most achromatic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἀχρωμάτιστος (akhrōmátistos, “uncolored”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + χρῶμα (khrôma, “color”), equivalent to a- + chromatic; compare French achromatique.

der

ἀχρωμάτιστος

(music) Having only the diatonic notes of the scale; not modified by accidentals.

диатоничен

music: having only the diatonic notes of the scale


si

From Middle English si (“seventh degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian si in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the initials of Latin Sāncte Iohannēs (“Saint John (the Baptist)”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon; thus, also an initialism of Sāncte Iohannēs.

der

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


manual

en-noun

manual (countable and uncountable, plural manuals)

From Middle English manuel, from Anglo-Norman manuel, Old French manual, from Latin manuālis, from manus (“hand”).

(countable) A device that is operated using the hands, or by a human rather than a machine.

(music) A keyboard for the hands on a harpsichord, organ, or other musical instrument.


cent

→ Cantonese: 仙 (sin¹)

→ Catalan: cent

→ French: cent

→ Georgian: ცენტი (cenṭi)

→ Hebrew: סנט (sent)

→ Italian: cent

→ Korean: 센트 (senteu)

→ Min Nan: 仙 (sian)

→ Polish: cent

→ Samoan: sene
→ English: sene

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: це̏нт

Latin script: cȅnt

→ Swahili: senti

→ Swedish: cent

Tok Pisin: sen
→ Rotokas: sieri

From Middle English cent, from Old French cent, from Latin centum, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥tóm.

(music) A hundredth of a semitone or half step.


course

→ Gulf Arabic: كورس (kōrs)

From Middle English cours, from Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from currō (“run”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of cursus and cour.

polku

path that something or someone moves along

the course of true love never did run smooth

(music) One or more strings on some musical instruments (such as the guitar, lute or vihuela): if multiple, then closely spaced, tuned in unison or octaves and intended to be played together.


minor

en-adj

minor (comparative more minor, superlative most minor)

more minor (comparative)
most minor (superlative)

antonym(s) of

serious, grave, severe, dangerous, fatal, life-threatening, acute (informal)

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

der

The musical interval between C and E♭ is a minor third while C to E is a major third.

...a certaine Fraction, which may be the difference betwixt a Tone major and a Tone minor, which we nominate a Schism...

1653, Rene Descartes, translated by Lord Brouncker, Excellent Compendium of Musick, page 30

Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly:

(music) Smaller by a diatonic semitone than the equivalent major interval.

Beethoven's melancholy Moonlight Sonata is scored in the key of C# minor, using the diatonic scale C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A, and B, but modulates throughout.

The minor mode of D is tender.

1772, William Jones, “On the Arts, Commonly Called Imitative”, in Poems..., page 209

The first chorus: ‘Behold the Lamb of God’, with its dark minor chords, brings threatening clouds over us.

1843 March, United States Magazine & Democratic Review, page 273

Modern harmonists are unwilling to acknowledge that the minor triad is less consonant than the major.

1880, Edmund Gurney, The Power of Sound, page 271

After harmony was introduced into music during the late Middle Ages, major and minor triads emerged as the principal chords. The major triad, as C E G, was regarded with especial favor, because it occurs naturally in the harmonic series, as on bugles, and can be expressed by the simple ratios, 4:5:6. A system of tuning for the diatonic scale known today as just intonation gained support in the 16th century, because its principal triads, C E G, F A C, and G B D, had these just ratios. But an important minor triad, D F A, is harsh in just intonation, and other unsatisfactory triads result when this tuning is extended to the complete chromatic scale.

1948 November, J.M. Barbour, “Music and Ternary Continued Fractions”, in American Mathematical Monthly, volume 55, number 9, page 545

The first voice of the fugue that Elizabeth had played... came to him, inverted mockingly and in a minor key.

1951, Carson McCullers, “The Sojourner”, in O. Henry Prize Stories of 1951, page 200

Tufnel: It's part of a trilogy, really, a musical trilogy that I'm doing in D... minor which I always find is really the saddest of all keys, really. I don't know why but it makes people weep instantly to play it... This piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".

1984, Christopher Guest et al., This Is Spin̈al Tap

He was a moralist in a minor key, more concerned that people should say ‘tinned peaches’ and not ‘tin peaches’, than that they should worry about nuclear disarmament.

1995 October 23, John Walsh, “The Pragmatic Entertainer Who Said the Unsayable”, in The Independent, page 3

(music) Incorporating a minor third interval above the (in scales) tonic or (in chords) root note, (also figurative) tending to produce a dark, discordant, sad, or pensive effect.

The minor perfect mode was marked by one single line which crossed three spaces, and the longue was equal to three breves... The minor imperfect mode was marked by a line which crossed two spaces only, and its longue was equal only to two breves.

1779, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by William Waring, Complete Dictionary of Music, page 243

(music, historical) Of or related to the relationship between the longa and the breve in a score.

Josquin works in minor prolation—that is, works in which the signature indicates that a semibreve is equal to two minims, often have a 3 as a medial signature for a few measures, indicating that until the 3 is canceled by the reappearance of a sign for minor prolation, there are to be 3 minims to a semibreve.

1969, Arthur Mendel, "Some Preliminary Attempts at Computer-Assisted Style Analysis in Music", Computers and the Humanities, Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 45

(music, historical) Having semibreves twice as long as a minim.


minor

byvak

subject of secondary undergraduate study

(music) Ellipsis of minor interval, scale, mode, key, chord, triad, etc.


ska

Origin uncertain. Probably imitative of the crisp guitar sound; other suggestions include a contraction of “skavoovie” (a word invented and used by musician Cluett Johnson), or of “speed polka”.

onomatopoeic

imitative

Everyone who loves ska has their own story to tell—the first time they heard the Specials back in the '70s, the first time they danced onstage at a Toasters show in the '80s, the first time they saw the Skatalites perform in the '90s.

2014, Heather Augustyn, “Preface”, in Ska: An Oral History, McFarland, page 3

(music) A style of Jamaican dance music originating in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean calypso and mento with American jazz and rhythm and blues; it was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.


harpsichord

From French harpechorde, from New Latin harpicordium, from harpa (“harp”) + chorda (“string”).

(music) A musical instrument with a keyboard that produces sound through a mechanical process. When the performer presses a key, a corresponding plectrum plucks a tuned string. The harpsichord originated in late medieval Europe and is one of the most important instruments used to perform Baroque music.


pause

From Middle French pause, from Latin pausa, from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis), from Ancient Greek παύω (paúō, “stop”), of uncertain origin. Compare the doublet pausa.

(music) A sign indicating continuance of a note or rest.


cembalo

Borrowed from Italian cembalo, from Latin. Doublet of cymbal.


harmonia

From Ancient Greek ἁρμονίᾱ (harmoníā). Doublet of harmony.

[…]concerning the ancient Greek harmoniai, or modes, in the diatonic genus.[…]degree signify the harmonia in which it appears and what degree it represents; for instance, “D-2” means that this ratio—11/10—is the second degree (ascending) in the Dorian harmonia.

1949, Harry Partch, Genesis of a Music: Monophony: the Relation of Its Music to Historic and Contemporary Trends; Its Philosophy, Concepts, and Principles; Its Relation to Historic and Proposed Intonations; and Its Application to Musical Instruments, The University of Wisconsin Press, pages 320 and 323

In the case of Mixolydian harmonia, the framework chord is ¹⁄₁, ¹⁴⁄₁₁, ¹⁴⁄₁₀, and ²⁄₁.[…]while the various diatonic harmoniai are modes of each other, this is not true of the other two genera, which are uniquely derived from their corresponding diatonic forms.

1991, 1/1: The Quarterly Journal of the Just Intonation Network, pages 4 and 5

In 1935, Hamilton trained a chamber orchestra in Stuttgart to perform in the harmoniai.

1993, John H. Chalmers, Jr., Divisions of the Tetrachord: A Prolegomenon to the Construction of Musical Scales, page 146

While Pollux attributed to Diodorus of Thebes the expansion of the aulos beyond four trupemata, Athenaeus and Pausanias refer to Pronomus of Thebes as the one who developed an aulos that was capable of playing aulema in Dorian, Phrygian, or Lydian harmoniai. In his description of a statue of Pronomus in Boeotia, Pausanias observes: For a time, auletes had three types of auloi. They played Dorian aulema on one, different auloi were made for pieces in the Phrygian harmonia, and the so-called Lydian aulema was played on other auloi.

1999, Thomas J. Mathiesen, Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, page 183

That rhythm was somehow implicated in the identity of the harmoniai is suggested in Aristotle’s anecdote about the composer Philoxenus, who attempted to compose a dithyramb, The Mysians, in the Dorian harmonia, but was unable to do so.

2020, Edward Nowacki, Greek and Latin Music Theory: Principles and Challenges, University of Rochester Press, page 18

(music) A harmonic mode in ancient Greek music, characterized by a particular set of chords and rhythmic patterns.


juice

en-noun

juice (usually uncountable, plural juices)

Tok Pisin: jus

→ Czech: džus

→ Danish: juice

→ Faroese: djús

→ Hungarian: dzsúsz

→ Icelandic: djús

→ Indonesian: jus

→ Japanese: ジュース (jūsu)

→ Korean: 주스 (juseu), 쥬스 (juseu)

→ Norwegian:

Norwegian Bokmål: juice, jus

Norwegian Nynorsk: juice, jus

→ Papiamentu: djus

→ Serbo-Croatian: džus

→ Slovak: džús

→ Swahili: juisi, jusi

→ Swedish: juice, jos

→ Zulu: újúsi

From Middle English jus, juis, from Old French jus, jous, from Latin jūs (“broth, soup, sauce”), from Proto-Indo-European *yúHs, from *yewH- (“to mix (of meal preparation)”). Doublet of jus and ukha. In this sense, mostly displaced native Middle English sew (“juice”), from Old English sēaw (“juice, sap”) (> English sew (“juice, broth, gravy”)).

The Nashville Teens convened in 1962 when Ramon "Ray" Phillips and Arthur Sharp, members of two local rival groups, decided to join their musical juices.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, page 160

(uncountable, slang, music) Musical agreement between instrumentalists.


bar

bar (countable and uncountable, plural bars)

→ Albanian: bar m

→ Arabic: بَار m (bār)

→ Armenian: բար (bar)

→ Bulgarian: бар (bar)

→ Burmese: ဘား (bha:)

→ Chichewa: bála

→ Cantonese: 吧 (baa¹)

→ Czech: bar m

→ Danish: bar c

→ Dutch: bar m

→ Esperanto: baro

→ Estonian: baar

→ French: bar m
→ Romanian: bar

→ Galician: bar m

→ Georgian: ბარი (bari)

→ German: Bar f

→ Greek: μπαρ n (bar)

→ Gulf Arabic: بار (bār)

→ Hebrew: בָּר (bar), בָּאר (bár)

→ Hungarian: bár (also via German)

→ Icelandic: bar m

→ Irish: beár m

→ Italian: bar m

→ Japanese: バー (bā)

→ Khmer: បារ (baa)

→ Korean: 바 (ba)

→ Lithuanian: bãras m

→ Macedonian: бар m (bar)

→ Malagasy: ba

→ Mandarin: 吧 (bā)

→ Norwegian:

Bokmål: bar m

Nynorsk: bar m

→ Persian: بار (bâr)

→ Polish: bar m

→ Portuguese: bar m

→ Russian: бар m (bar)

→ Serbo-Croatian: ба̑р m, bȃr m

→ Slovene: bȃr m

→ Spanish: bar m

→ Swahili: baa

→ Swedish: bar c (see there for further descendants)

→ Thai: บาร์ (baa)

→ Turkish: bar

→ Xhosa: íbhári

→ Zulu: ibha

From Middle English barre, from Old French barre (“beam, bar, gate, barrier”), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin. Doublet of barre.

der

(music) A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value.


symphonia

en-noun

symphonia (countable and uncountable, plural symphonias)

From Ancient Greek σῠμφωνῐ́ᾱ (sumphōníā). Doublet of sinfonia, symphony, tsampouna, and zampogna.


major

en-adj

major (comparative more major, superlative most major)

more major (comparative)
most major (superlative)

From Middle English major, from Latin maior, comparative of magnus (“great, large; noble, important”), from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂yōs (“greater”), comparative of *meǵh₂- (“great”). Compare West Frisian majoar (“major”), Dutch majoor (“major”), French majeur. Doublet of mayor.

major scale

Having intervals of a semitone between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth degrees. (of a scale)

major third

Equivalent to that between the tonic and another note of a major scale, and greater by a semitone than the corresponding minor interval. (of an interval)

major triad

durový

music: containing the note which is a major third above the tonic

(postpositive) (of a key) Based on a major scale, tending to produce a bright or joyful effect.

(campanology) Bell changes rung on eight bells.


major

pääaineopiskelija

student specializing in a specified subject

(campanology) A system of change-ringing using eight bells.


thesis

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Johann Gottlieb Fichte

From Late Middle English thesis (“lowering of the voice”) and also borrowed directly from its etymon Latin thesis (“proposition, thesis; lowering of the voice”), from Ancient Greek θέσῐς (thésis, “arrangement, placement, setting; conclusion, position, thesis; lowering of the voice”), from τῐ́θημῐ (títhēmi, “to place, put, set; to put down in writing; to consider as, regard”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”)) + -σῐς (-sis, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result). The English word is a doublet of deed.
Sense 1.1 (“proposition or statement supported by arguments”) is adopted from antithesis. Sense 1.4 (“initial stage of reasoning”) was first used by the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), and later applied to the dialectical method of his countryman, the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831).
The plural form theses is borrowed from Latin thesēs, from Ancient Greek θέσεις (théseis).

der

(music, prosody, originally) The action of lowering the hand or bringing down the foot when indicating a rhythm; hence, an accented part of a measure of music or verse indicated by this action; an ictus, a stress.

(music, prosody, with a reversal of meaning) A depression of the voice when pronouncing a syllables of a word; hence, the unstressed part of the metrical foot of a verse upon which such a depression falls, or an unaccented musical note.


opus

Beethoven's "Razumovsky" Quartets, Op. 59, are considered by many to be the beginning of the Romantic era.

(music) A work of music or set of works with a specified rank in an ordering of a composer's complete published works.

опус

a work of music or set of works with a specified rank


steel

en-noun

steel (countable and uncountable, plural steels)

From Middle English stele, stel, from Old English stīele, from Proto-West Germanic *stahlī (“something made of steel”), enlargement of *stahl (“steel”), from Proto-Germanic *stahlą, from *stah- or *stag- (“to be firm, rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *stak- (“to stay, to be firm”). Compare Scots stele, Yola stehli.

der

(music, guitar) A type of slide used while playing the steel guitar.


doh

Audio (US)

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


lip

en-noun

lip (countable and uncountable, plural lips)

From Middle English lippe, from Old English lippa, lippe (“lip”), from Proto-West Germanic *lippjō (“lip”), from Proto-Germanic *lepô, from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely, droop, sag”).
Cognate with West Frisian lippe (“lip”), Dutch lip (“lip”), German Lippe and Lefze (“lip”), Swedish läpp (“lip”), Norwegian leppe (“lip”),
Danish læbe (“lip”),
Latin labium (“lip”).

der

there's many a slip between the cup and the lip

there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip

(music, colloquial) Embouchure: the condition or strength of a wind instrumentalist's lips.


lip

en-verb

lip (third-person singular simple present lips, present participle lipping, simple past and past participle lipped)

lips (present singular third-person)
lipping (participle present)
lipped (participle past)
lipped (past)

(transitive, music) To change the sound of (a musical note played on a wind instrument) by moving or tensing the lips.


label

→ Danish: label

→ Dutch: label

→ French: label

→ Japanese: ラベル (raberu)

→ Polish: label

From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“blade”). Cognate with Old High German lappa (“rag, piece of cloth”), Old English læppa (“skirt, flap of a garment”). More at lap.

cog

The label signed the band after hearing a demo tape.


lento

en-adj

lento (comparative more lento, superlative most lento)

more lento (comparative)
most lento (superlative)


lento

(music) A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played very slowly.


crust

en-noun

crust (countable and uncountable, plural crusts)

From Middle English cruste, from Anglo-Norman and Old French cruste, from Latin crusta (“hard outer covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *krustós (“hardened”), from *krews- (“to form a crust, begin to freeze”), related to Old Norse hroðr (“scurf”), Old English hruse (“earth”), Old High German hrosa (“crust, ice”), Latvian kruvesis (“frozen mud”), Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost, icy cold”), κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “crystal, ice”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬎𐬰𐬛𐬭𐬀- (xruzdra-, “hard”), Sanskrit क्रूड् (krūḍ, “thicken, make hard”).

cog

(music) Ellipsis of crust punk (a subgenre of punk music)


dreadnought

Named after HMS Dreadnought, the first battleship finished of this type, itself named for Etymology 2.

(by extension) One that is the largest or the most powerful of its kind.

(music) A type of acoustic guitar with a very large body and a waist that is less pronounced than on other guitar shapes, producing a deep, bold sound.


system

→ Japanese: システム (shisutemu)

Partly borrowed from Middle French sisteme, systeme, partly directly from its etymon Late Latin systēma (“harmony; musical scale; set of celestial objects; set of troops; system”), from Ancient Greek σύστημα (sústēma, “musical scale; organized body; whole made of several parts or members”), from σῠνίστημῐ (sunístēmi, “to combine, organize”) + -μᾰ (-ma, resultative suffix). σῠνίστημῐ is from σῠν- (sun-, “with, together”) + ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”).
Cognate with Dutch systeem, modern French système, German System, Italian sistema, Portuguese sistema, Spanish sistema. Doublet of systema.

sistem

To notate music that is played on a piano or is played by different musicians on various instruments, one often uses several staves to notate the various musical voices. A single vertical line drawn to the left of multiple staves creates a staff system, which indicates that the music on all staves is to be played simultaneously. A bracket is an additional vertically aligned symbol joining staves. This symbol shows groupings of instruments that function as a unit, such as the string section of an orchestra[…].

2015, Meinhard Müller, “Music Representations”, in Fundamentals of Music Processing: Audio, Analysis, Algorithms, Applications, Cham, Switzerland, Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, →DOI, section 1.1.2 (Western Music Notation), page 8

A group or set of related things that operate together as a complex whole.

(music) A set of staves linked by a brace that indicate instruments or sounds that are to be played simultaneously.

譜表組

(music) set of staves indicating instruments or sounds to be played simultaneously