oater

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-oater.wav

From oat + -er (“Variety -er”). ~1945-50, alluding to the fodder for horses, which are common in the movies.

In recent years the western or horse opera, known in the trade as the "oater," has come to be recognized as an art form just as formal as the ballet or the symphony. […] To prove his contention that all this is so, Life Photographer John Florea took these unusual pictures during the filming of Yellow Sky. This is a $1,450,000 western with big-name stars […] and technical talent from 20th Century's top drawer, but is basically a typical oater.

1949 January 10, “The Great American Horse Opera”, in Life

By far the more common was the low-budget "hoss opera" or "oater," ground out in relentless numbers by studios such as Universal and Republic, and designed basically for edification of the young, who took them in on Fridays and Saturdays[…] There were, to be sure, degrees of the oater; a somewhat more subtle version, designed for adult as well as child viewing, was also made.

1995, Louis Decimus Rubin, Jerry Leath Mills, A Writer's Companion

While trying to run a trading post at the depths of the Great Depression, Harry Goulding heard that a Hollywood director was looking for the perfect Western backdrop for his next oater.

2006 April 2, Timothy Egan, “Monument Valley: Endless Earth, Infinite Sky”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(informal, US, entertainment) A movie or television show about cowboy or frontier life; a western movie.


juke

From Gullah juke, jook, joog (“wicked, disorderly”) (compare Wolof and Bambara dzug (“unsavory”)).

All Kouichi Furutono wanted to do was expose Japanese audiences to the skittering sounds of Chicago juke music.

2018 October 5, Patrick St. Michel, “The Inventive World of Japan’s Juke and Footwork Scene”, in Bandcamp Daily

(uncountable, music) A genre of electronic music native to Chicago, noted for its fast, abstract rhythms; see footwork.


jig

Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.

(music) A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.

They danced a jig.

Soon Marshall is doing an elaborate foot-to-foot jig, and then they're all bounding around. Shoulder dips. Yee-ha faces. It's an impromptu hoedown.

2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph

(traditional Irish music and dance) A lively dance in 6/8 (double jig), 9/8 (slip jig) or 12/8 (single jig) time; a tune suitable for such a dance. By extension, a lively traditional tune in any of these time signatures. Unqualified, the term is usually taken to refer to a double (6/8) jig.


motif

From French motif (1848), with the meaning of "main idea or theme". Doublet of motive.

(music) A short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated in several parts of a work.

мотив

music: short melodic passage that is repeated in several parts of a work


baton

(music) The stick of a conductor in musical performances.


canto

From Italian canto (“song”). Doublet of chant.

(music) The designated division of a song.


scrim

en-noun

scrim (countable and uncountable, plural scrims)

Attested since the end of the 18th century. Origin unknown.
In one of the earliest mentions, "The Statistical Account of Scotland", 1793, by John Sinclair, page 593, we read in a paragraph devoted to weavers: "Besides these, they are now much employed in working a thin kind of coarse linen called Silesias, vulgarly Scrims, whereof each piece is 27 or 30 inches broad".

unk

unknown

Mummified mannequins dangling above the set, illuminated from within, were a heavy-handed touch, but the designer George Tsypin’s translucent scrims and painted drops beautifully conveyed the passage of sun-blasted days and bone-chilling nights on the edge of civilization.

2007 January 22, Steve Smith, “In Austin, Echoes of a Distant War in an Opera’s American Premiere”, in New York Times

(theater) A theater drop that appears opaque when a scene in front is lighted and transparent or translucent when a scene in back is lighted.


compound

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

(music) An octave higher than originally (i.e. a compound major second is equivalent to a major ninth).


rondo

en-noun

rondo (countable and uncountable, plural rondos)

Borrowed from Italian rondo, from French rondeau. Doublet of rondeau.

(music, countable) A musical composition, commonly of a lively, cheerful character, in which the first strain recurs after each of the other strains.


stooge

Perhaps an abbreviation of Russian студе́нт (studént) [stʊˈdʲent]; the original meaning was “stage assistant, actor who assists a comedian”. It may have been a Yiddish vaudeville term.


oblique motion

oblique motion (countable and uncountable, plural oblique motions)

(music) A kind of motion or progression in which one part ascends or descends, while the other prolongs or repeats the same tone.


rep

rep (countable and uncountable, plural reps)

Clippings of various words beginning with rep.

She did her time in reps before she made the grade in West End theatre.


moll

From German Moll, from
 Latin mollis (“soft, tender, elegiac”). Compare molle (“flat (in music)”).
Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål moll.

Bach's Gavotte in B Moll

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(music, obsolete) minor; in the minor key.


opera

opera (countable and uncountable, plural operas or opere)

Borrowed from Italian opera. Doublet of oeuvre, opus, and ure.

(music) A theatrical work, combining drama, music, song and sometimes dance.

(music) The genre of such works, the art of composing operas.


winker

From wink (“blinking of only one eye”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

silmäniskijä

Where the wind-trunk is short between the reservoir and wind-chests the tone will be steady; but when it is long, and with bends, the elasticity of the air causes an unsteadiness in the tone, which must be obviated by the use of concussion-bellows, sometimes called "winkers," or by an elastic diaphragm.

1877, W[illia]m H[oratio] Clarke, “The Interior of the Organ”, in An Outline of the Structure of the Pipe Organ […], Boston, Mass.: Oliver Ditson Company […], →OCLC, page 21

A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks.

(music) A small bellows in an organ, regulated by a spring, which controls variations of wind pressure.


scat

en-verb

scat (third-person singular simple present scats, present participle scatting, simple past and past participle scatted)

scats (present singular third-person)
scatting (participle present)
scatted (participle past)
scatted (past)

(music, jazz) To sing an improvised melodic solo using nonsense syllables, often onomatopoeic or imitative of musical instruments.


aleatory

From Latin āleātōrius, from āleātor (“dice-player”), from ālea (“a die”).

(art, music) Produced with an element of chance (aleatoricism).


wrest

wrest (third-person singular simple present wrests, present participle wresting, simple past and past participle wrested)

wrests (present singular third-person)
wresting (participle present)
wrested (participle past)
wrested (past)

From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wrǣstan (“to twist forcibly, wrench”), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną, (compare Proto-Germanic *wrīhaną (“to turn, wind; to cover, envelop”), *wrīþaną (“to weave, twist”), Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”)), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-, *wreyḱ- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”). See also writhe, wry.
The noun is derived from the verb.

cog

The Harpe. A harpe geueth ſounde as it is ſette / The harper may wreſt it vntunablye

1503 July, 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 St Dunstan-in-the-West by Thomas Marshe, published 1568, →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

(transitive, music) To tune with a wrest, or key.


wrest

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

1503 July, 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, published 1568, →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 key to tune a stringed instrument.


vamp

From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”).
Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4.
The verb senses were derived from the noun. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).

I would go even further and say that, once [Stephen] Sondheim had ceased to compose classical music with its nonspecific accompaniments, he began to explore how effectively a vamp can flesh out a character for the stage. He had little need to write distinctive vamps for his Williams [College] shows, but already in 1954—before the highly characteristic vamps in West Side Story—we see him growing in his ability to get under a character's skin through his accompaniment.

2005, Steve Swayne, “Pulling It Apart”, in How Sondheim Found His Sound, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, page 116

On the mega-rave circuit, a pop hardcore sound gradually emerged, fusing the piano vamps and shrieking divas of 1989-era Italo house with Belgian hardcore's monster-riffs and Shut Up and Dance style breakbeats and rumblin' bass.

2012, Simon Reynolds, “’Ardcore, You Know the Score”, in Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Berkeley, Calif.: Soft Skull Press, page 119

(music) A repeated and often improvised accompaniment, usually consisting of one or two measures, often a single chord or simple chord progression, repeated as necessary, for example, to accommodate dialogue or to anticipate the entrance of a soloist.


vamp

en-verb

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

vamps (present singular third-person)
vamping (participle present)
vamped (participle past)
vamped (past)

The band played ceaselessly. Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor.

1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 4, in The Subtle Minotaur, London: John Gifford […], →OCLC, →OL, page 52

[W]hen she [Billie Holiday] finally emerged from her dressing room, she would take her time getting to the stage, stopping and greeting people and even having drinks at the bar while her accompanists vamped.

1994, Donald Clarke, “The War Years”, in Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday, New York, N.Y.: Viking; republished as Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon, Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2002, page 206

(transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.

(transitive, intransitive, music, specifically) To perform a vamp (“a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).


chime

From Middle English chime, chim, chimbe, chymbe, a shortening of chimbelle (misinterpreted as chymme-belle, chimbe-belle), from Old English ċimbala, ċimbal (“cymbal”), from Latin cymbalum.

Hugo had a recording of someone playing the chimes against a background of surf noise that she found calming.

Sylvia was a chime player in the school orchestra.

(music) A musical instrument producing a sound when struck, similar to a bell (e.g. a tubular metal bar) or actually a bell. Often used in the plural to refer to the set: the chimes.


labial

Borrowing from Medieval Latin labiālis (“of or pertaining to the lips”), from labium (“a lip”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to labium + -al.

af

a labial organ pipe


labial

All organ pipes are divided into two general classes, labial and lingual pipes. The main difference between the two classes is the manner by which the vibrations producing the sound are caused. In labial pipes the column of air entering the pipe under pressure is set in vibration by a fixed obstruction at the mount of the pipe. […] [T]he obstruction at the mouth […] causes the column of air to vibrate. In the lingual or reed pipe, the vibrations are caused by the air passing through a metal reed, which causes the tongue of the reed to vibrate, thereby setting up sympathetic vibrations in the column of air in the pipe.

1923, Estey Organ Company, The Philosophy of an Organ Builder, Brattleboro, VT, pages 34–35

(music) An organ pipe having a lip that influences its sound.


cater

From French quatre (“four”). Doublet of cuatro.

The very terms of the art are enough to frighten an amateur. Hunting, dodging... caters, cinques, etc.

1872, Henry Thomas Ellacombe, The Bells of Church, page 29

Cater... The name given by change ringers to changes of nine bells. The word should probably be written quaters, as it is meant to denote the fact that four couples of bells change their places in the order of ringing.

1878, George Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Cater"

(music) A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.


clang

1570, of imitative origin; Compare also Saterland Frisian Kloang, West Frisian klank, Dutch klank, German Klang (from klingen), Danish and Swedish klang,
 Latin clangere.


volta

(music) A turning; a time (chiefly used in phrases signifying that the part is to be repeated).

(music, dance) A dance for couples popular during the late Renaissance, associated with the galliard and done to the same kind of music.


classical

en-adj

classical (comparative more classical, superlative most classical)

more classical (comparative)
most classical (superlative)

Garner's Modern English Usage
linguistic description
linguistic prescription

See classic § Etymology for history. By surface analysis, class + -ical = classic + -al

classic

see Usage notes regarding differentiation.

(music) Describing Western music and musicians of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

(informal, music) Describing art music (rather than pop, jazz, blues, etc), especially when played using instruments of the orchestra.


fanfare

en-verb

fanfare (third-person singular simple present fanfares, present participle fanfaring, simple past and past participle fanfared)

fanfares (present singular third-person)
fanfaring (participle present)
fanfared (participle past)
fanfared (past)

Today the mower's metal music fanfared summer's choir of motley symphonies and high concertos piped or chanted from a treetop, droned above the pollen bee flowers, babbled over stony brook-beds, whispered by the whine of willow,

1946, John Hugh Brignal Peel, Mere England: a poem, page 49

PAM is a guitar song fanfared by massive chords on an acoustic 12-string (probably (ribbed From The Who's contemporary hit 'Pinball Wizard').

2008, Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, page 364


ruff

I also used quite a few of the flat-fingered kind of ruff (as used before on the doumbek in the baladi section) to embellish some notes.

2003, Rob Lewis, “3 Camps: Rudimental Drum Solo”, in Crosstraining: A Method for Applying Rhythms and Techniques to Drum Set, Hand Percussion and Mallet Instruments, Pacific, Mo.: Mel Bay Productions, part 6 (Rudiments and Rudimental Solos), page 71

(music, often military) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruffle.


dominant

→ Polish: dominant

(music) The fifth major tone of a musical scale (five major steps above the note in question); thus G is the dominant of C, A of D, and so on.

(music) The triad built on the dominant tone.


dominant

en-adj

dominant (comparative more dominant, superlative most dominant)

more dominant (comparative)
most dominant (superlative)

Dominant seventh


deck

From Middle English dekke, borrowed from Middle Dutch dec (“roof, covering”), from Middle Dutch decken, from Old Dutch thecken, from Proto-West Germanic *þakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *þakjaną. Formed the same: German Decke (“covering, blanket”). Doublet of thatch and thack.

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic


novelette

(music) A short piece of lyrical music, especially one for the piano.


minuet

From French menuet, from menu (“small”) + -et (“diminutive”), from Latin minutus (“very small”).

(music) A tune or air to regulate the movements of the minuet dance: it has the dance form, and is commonly in 3/4, sometimes 3/8, measure.

(music) A complete short musical composition inspired by and conforming to many formal characteristics of the traditional musical accompaniment to the dance of same name.

(music) A movement which is part of a longer musical composition such as a suite, sonata, or symphony which is inspired by and conforming to formal characteristics of the dance of same name.


beam

From Middle English beem, from Old English bēam (“tree, cross, gallows, column, pillar, wood, beam, splint, post, stock, rafter, piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum, from Proto-Germanic *baumaz (“tree, beam, balk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, swell”). Cognate with West Frisian beam (“tree”), Saterland Frisian Boom (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Low German Boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Luxembourgish Bam (“tree”), Albanian bimë (“a plant”). Doublet of boom.
The original English meaning of beam ("tree") is preserved in some compound words such as quickbeam.
The verb is from Middle English bemen, from Old English bēamian (“to shine, to cast forth rays or beams of light”), from the noun.

inh

(music) A horizontal bar which connects the stems of two or more notes to group them and to indicate metric value.


beam

en-verb

beam (third-person singular simple present beams, present participle beaming, simple past and past participle beamed)

beams (present singular third-person)
beaming (participle present)
beamed (participle past)
beamed (past)

German: beamen

Dutch: beamen

Japanese: ビーム

(transitive, music) To connect (musical notes) with a beam, or thick line, in music notation.


septette

(music) A musical composition for seven instruments or seven voices; a septuor.


grand

en-adj

grand (comparative grander or more grand, superlative grandest or most grand)

grander (comparative)
more grand (comparative)
grandest (superlative)
most grand (superlative)

From Middle English grand, grond, graund, graunt, from Anglo-Norman graunt, from Old French grant, from Latin grandis. Doublet of grande and grandee.

(music) Containing all the parts proper to a given form of composition.


rehearse

en-verb

rehearse (third-person singular simple present rehearses, present participle rehearsing, simple past and past participle rehearsed)

rehearses (present singular third-person)
rehearsing (participle present)
rehearsed (participle past)
rehearsed (past)

From Middle English rehersen, from Anglo-Norman reherser (“to repeat word-for-word”).

der

The director rehearsed the cast incessantly in the days leading up to opening night, and as a result they were tired and cranky when it arrived.

It was plain that he'd been rehearsed a lot, but he wasn't letter-perfect by any manner of means.

1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post

(transitive, theater) To cause to rehearse; to instruct by rehearsal.

doen repeteren

to cause rehearse or instruct by rehearsal


fundamental

From Late Latin fundamentālis, from Latin fundamentum (“foundation”), from fundō (“to lay the foundation (of something), to found”), from fundus (“bottom”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn.

(music) The lowest partial of a complex tone.


rosette

Borrowed from Middle French rosette, rozette (in sense 15) and (modern) French rosette.

(music) A decorative inlay surrounding the sound hole of a guitar.


plaque

en-noun

plaque (countable and uncountable, plural plaques)

Unadapted borrowing from French plaque (“plate, sheet (of metal); slab (of marble); bacteria on teeth”), from French plaquer, Middle French plaquer (“to plate”), from Middle Dutch placken (“to patch, beat metal into a thin plate”), from placke (“disk, patch, stain”), from Old Dutch *plagga (“patch”), from Proto-Germanic *plaggą (“patch”).
The word is cognate with Middle Low German placke, plagge (“small stain, scraps, rags, thin grass”), German Placken (“spot, patch”), Saterland Frisian plak, plakke (“a blow, slap”), Swedish plagg (“clothing, garment”). Compare plack.

plakki

abnormal accumulation of material in or on an organ of the body, often associated with disease

blown plaques

aconcussion plaques

(countable, music) In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system: any flat, thin musical instrument.


rapper

He rose from the ghetto to become a successful rapper.

(music) A performer of rap music, or someone who raps in any form of music.


rave

en-noun

rave (countable and uncountable, plural raves)

→ Finnish: reivit (pl)

From Middle English raven (“to rave; talk like a madman”), from Old French raver, variant of resver, of uncertain origin. Compare rove.

der

Maybe I wear baggies / And white socks with flip-flops / Maybe I don't like listening to rave / And I'm not on the social mountaintops

2009, Chrysalis Experiential Academy, Mind Harvesting, page 109

(music, uncountable) The genres of electronic dance music made to be played in rave parties.


fake

en-verb

fake (third-person singular simple present fakes, present participle faking, simple past and past participle faked)

fakes (present singular third-person)
faking (participle present)
faked (participle past)
faked (past)

desc

→ Cantonese: fake (“to fool; to deceive”)

→ French: faker

The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (“to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish”); akin to Dutch veeg (“a swipe”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, wipe”); German fegen (“to sweep, to polish”). Compare also Old English fācn (“deceit, fraud”). Perhaps related also to Old Norse fjúka (“to fade, vanquish, disappear”), Old Norse feikn (“strange, scary, unnatural”).

unk

not known

m+

Occasionally the opportunity arises to stand up and "fake" a jazz standard.

In the face of this print music culture, 'faking' was the ability—at once respected and disrespected—to improvise a song (or a part in an arrangement) without reading the notation.

Denning, cited in 2020, Matt Brennan, Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit (page 110)

(music, transitive, intransitive) To improvise, in jazz.


reel

From Middle English reel, reele, from Old English rēol, hrēol, from Proto-West Germanic *hrehul, from Proto-Germanic *hrehulaz, *hrahilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“to weave, beat”). Cognate with Icelandic ræl, hræll.

der

[…]sample the famed waters from the Scottish mountains like a native born, and last but not least, play a reel on the bagpipes in the big hall that set all the laddies and lassies dancing.

The traditional reel Within a Mile of Dublin, for instance, distorts until it reaches something quasi-industrial.

2023 November 13, Patrick Clarke, “‘People’s idea of Irishness is so warped’: John Francis Flynn, the folk singer fighting for Dublin’s spirit”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

(music) The music of this dance; often called a Scottish (or Scotch) reel.


motive

From Middle English motif, from Anglo-Norman motif, Middle French motif, and their source, Late Latin motivum (“motive, moving cause”), neuter of motivus.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the flutes mimicking the cello motive.

(architecture, fine arts, music) Alternative form of motif


stave

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-stave.wav

Back-formation from staves, the plural of staff.

(music) The set of five horizontal and parallel lines on and between which musical notes are written or pointed; the staff.


scene

From Middle French scene, from Latin scaena, scēna, from Ancient Greek σκηνή (skēnḗ, “scene, stage”). Doublet of scena and skene.

They stood in the centre of the scene.

to paint scenes

to change the scenes

behind the scenes

(theater) The decorations; furnishings and backgrounds of a stage, representing the place in which the action of a play is set.

səhnə

(theater) decorations, furnishing and backgrounds of a stage — see also decor

The play is divided into three acts, and in total twenty-five scenes.

The most moving scene is the final one, where he realizes he has wasted his whole life.

There were some very erotic scenes in the movie, although it was not classified as pornography.

(theater, film, television, radio) A part of a dramatic work that is set in the same place or time. In the theatre, generally a number of scenes constitute an act.

տեսարան

(theater, film, television, radio) part of a dramatic work that is set in the same place or time


manet

From Latin manet (“he remains”), manent (“they remain”), inflections of maneō.

Exeunt Princess and maidens. Manet Lady Blanche.

(theater) Used in stage directions; literally, he, she or it remains. Compare exit, exeunt.


tact

en-noun

tact (countable and uncountable, plural tacts)

table
Directly borrowed from Latin tāctus.


vedette

Josephine Baker arrived in Cuba in 1951. When this famous black American vedette arrived—she who had first enraptured Paris and later the rest of Europe—Rita Montaner played a trick on her. La Baker, as well as Cuban vedettes and rumba dancers, had conquered Europe by selling exoticism to an avid European public.

2005, Coco Fusco, Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, Routledge, page 44

(entertainment) A cabaret performer, usually the main female artist of a show.


fret

table
From Middle English freten (“to bind”), from Old French freter, from frete (“ferrule, ring”) (modern French frette). The origin of the music senses are uncertain; they are possibly from frete or from fret (“to chafe, rub”).

The long-necked Egyptian Nefer was certainly depicted in the 4th dynasty; and wall-painting of the time of Moses, preserved in the British Museum, shows that it then had frets.

1880, A. J. H[ipkins], “LUTE”, in George Grove, editor, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450–1880) [...] In Three Volumes, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 175, column 2

The frets of the lute marked whole tones, while those of the guitar were a semi-tone apart.

1916, “History of the Orchestra”, in Daniel Gregory Mason, editor-in-chief, Benjamin Lambord, editors, The Orchestra and Orchestral Music (The Art of Music: A Comprehensive Library of Information for Music Lovers and Musicians; 8), New York, N.Y.: The National Society of Music, →OCLC, section III, page 69

(music) One of the pieces of metal, plastic or wood across the neck of a guitar or other string instrument that marks where a finger should be positioned to depress a string as it is played.

tast

one of the pieces of metal, etc., across the neck of a guitar or other string instrument


fret

en-verb

fret (third-person singular simple present frets, present participle fretting, simple past and past participle fretted)

frets (present singular third-person)
fretting (participle present)
fretted (participle past)
fretted (past)

to fret a guitar

To fit frets on to (a musical instrument).

Note that right next to the headstock, the boxes may utilize some open notes in place of fretting with the pointer finger because the nut will effectively fret the notes for you[…].

2015, Drew Turrill, “Step by Step Exercises”, in Don’t Fret – Learn Lead Guitar the Easy Way, [s.l.]: BookBaby

(transitive, music) Musical senses.
To press down the string behind a fret.


slam

en-noun

slam (countable and uncountable, plural slams)

From Middle English *slammen (not recorded), apparently from a Scandinavian source ultimately from Old Norse slæma, slœma (“to slam, swing a weapon, strike an object out of reach”), related to Old Norse slamra, slambra (“to slam”). Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål slamre (“to slam”), Swedish slamra (“to pound, beat, make a clatter, rattle”), Norwegian Nynorsk slamra (“to sway, dangle”).

cog

(music, uncountable) A subgenre of death metal with elements of hardcore punk focusing on midtempo rhythms, breakdowns and palm-muted riffs.


shred

en-verb

shred (third-person singular simple present shreds, present participle shredding, simple past shredded, past participle shredded or shred)

shreds (present singular third-person)
shredding (participle present)
shredded (past)
shredded (participle past)
shred (participle past)
shred (infinitive)

The verb is derived from Middle English shreden, shred (“to chop, cut up; to cut, hack; to wound with a knife; to cut off a part of (something); to prune, trim”) [and other forms], from Old English sċrēadian (“to cut up, shred; to cut off; to prune, trim”), from Proto-West Germanic *skraudōn, related to Proto-West Germanic *skraudan (“to cut up; to shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudaną (“to cut up; to shred”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”).
The adjective is derived from the past participle form of the verb.

nb...

schred, schredde, schrede, screde, shreade, shrede, shredde, shrid, (Early Middle English) screda, scradien, (Ormulum) shrædenn

inh

(music) Chiefly in rock and heavy metal: to play (a musical instrument (especially a guitar) or a piece of music) very fast.

tiluttaa

to play (a musical instrument or a piece of music) very fast


suite

Borrowed from Middle French suite. See also the doublet suit.

(music) A musical form, popular before the time of the sonata, consisting of a string or series of pieces all in the same key, mostly in various dance rhythms, with sometimes an elaborate prelude.

(music) An excerpt of instrumental music from a larger work that contains other elements besides the music; for example, the Nutcracker Suite is the music (but not the dancing) from the ballet The Nutcracker, and the Carmen Suite is the instrumental music (but not the singing and dancing) from the opera Carmen.


player

From Middle English pleyer, playere, from Old English pleġere (“player, athlete, wrestler”), equivalent to play + -er.

One that plays
(theater) An actor in a dramatic play.

One that plays
An actor in a dramatic play.

(music) One who plays on a musical instrument.

One that plays
One who plays on a musical instrument.


psalm

From Middle English salm or psalme, from Old English psealm, later reinforced from Old French psalme (modern French psaume), both from Latin psalmus, from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, “the sound emanating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands or fingers, mostly of musical strings”) (from ψάλλω (psállō, “to make a sound by striking, touching, plucking, rubbing, twanging, or vibrating”)), but later in New Testament times the meaning of ψαλμός (psalmós) evolved from its Classical meaning of "a tune played to the harp" to a more general tune that could be played with any instrument; even a song sung with or without musical accompaniment. By the Byzantine Period, it lost all of its instrumental nuances.

Psalms

of the book of the Bible in which the psalms are collected

(religion, music) A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God.


release

en-noun

release (countable and uncountable, plural releases)

From Middle English relesen, relessen, from Old French relaisser (variant of relascher).

отцепване

a device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required

(music) A kind of bridge used in jazz music.


extra

(acting) A supernumerary or walk-on in a film or play.


spike

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.

der

Sometimes actors set props on the spikes, or sometimes a deckhand will do it, depending on the action of the play.

2020, John Ramsey Holloway, Zachary Stribling, Illustrated Theatre Production Guide, page 15

(theater) A mark indicating where a prop or other item should be placed on stage.


punk

en-noun

punk (countable and uncountable, plural punks)

Uncertain. Possibly from punk ("rotten wood dust used as tinder", attested since 1678; see Etymology 2 below) to anything worthless (attested since 1869) and then to any undesirable person (since 1908).

gl

Who else... would have the nerve to actually begin a song with the line ‘Whatchew gonna do, mama, now that the roast beef's gone...?’ Man, that is true punk; that is so fucked up it's got class up the ass.

(uncountable, music) Short for punk rock, a genre known for short, loud, energetic songs with electric guitars and strong drums.


organize

en-verb

organize (third-person singular simple present organizes, present participle organizing, simple past and past participle organized)

organizes (present singular third-person)
organizing (participle present)
organized (participle past)
organized (past)
organize (infinitive)

From Middle English organizen, organysen, partly from Middle French organiser and partly from its etymon, Medieval Latin organizō, from Latin organum (“organ”); see organ.

to organize an anthem

Formerly , those Catholic priests who sung in parts : so to sing , was to organize

1828, Thomas Busby, A Complete Dictionary of Music


wail

wail (third-person singular simple present wails, present participle wailing, simple past and past participle wailed)

wails (present singular third-person)
wailing (participle present)
wailed (participle past)
wailed (past)

c. 1300, Middle English weilen, waylen (“to sob, cry, wail”), from Old Norse væla (“to wail”), from væ, vei (“woe”), from Proto-Germanic *wai (whence also Old English wā (“woe”) (English woe)), from Proto-Indo-European *wáy.
The verb is first attested in the intransitive sense; the transitive sense developed in mid-14ᵗʰ c.. The noun came from the verb.

At Boston's Roseland, as "the Count's band was wailing," he grabbed Mamie, an avid dancer. The "band was screaming when she kicked off her shoes and got barefooted

1999, Lewis A. Erenberg, Swingin' the Dream: Big Band Jazz and the Rebirth of American Culture, page 111

The band was really wailing as we quickly made our dance moves in a most provocative manner.

2012, Robert Lewis Barrett, A Portrait of the First Born As a Child, page 377

We had a nondenominational wedding, with a bunch of great Sufi musicians really wailing, and my wildly enthusiastic mother in attendance.

(slang, music) To perform with great liveliness and force.

jaulen

to perform with great liveliness and force (slang)


rap music

(music) Hip-hop music, especially when focused on rapping.


Baroque

en-adj

Baroque (comparative more Baroque, superlative most Baroque)

more Baroque (comparative)
most Baroque (superlative)

Via French (which originally meant a pearl of irregular shape) from Portuguese barroco (“irregular pearl”); related to Spanish barrueco and Italian barocco, of uncertain ultimate origin, but possibly from Latin verruca (“wart”), or possibly from the technical construction of scholastic logic, Baroco.

(art, music) From or characteristic of the Baroque period.

barokní

relating or belonging to the Baroque period


Baroque

(art, music) A period in western architecture, art and music from ca. 1600 to ca. 1760 CE, known for its abundance of drama, rich color, and extensive ornamentation.


strain

From Middle English streen, strene, streon, istreon (“race, stock, generation”), from Old English strēon, ġestrēon (“gain, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *streuną (“heap, treasure, profit, gain”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread, strew”) (cognate with Old Saxon gistriuni, Old High German gistriuni (“gain, property, wealth, business”), Latin strues (“heap”)). Confused in Middle English with the related noun strend, strynd, strund, from Old English strȳnd (“race; stock”), from strēonan, strȳnan (“to beget; acquire”). Related also to Dutch struinen (“to prowl, root about, rout”).

cog

Yet Keats, though for so many years he has given nothing to the world, is understood to have devoted himself to the composition of an epic poem. Some passages of it have been communicated to the inner circle of his admirers, and impressed them as the loftiest strains that have been audible on earth since Milton’s days.

1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “P.'s Correspondence”, in Mosses from an Old Manse

(music, poetry) Any sustained note or movement; a song; a distinct portion of an ode or other poem; also, the pervading note, or burden, of a song, poem, etc.


smooth jazz

(music, jazz) A modern form of jazz first developed in the 1970s that blends in elements of rhythm and blues.


trope

Japanese: トロープ (torōpu)

Korean: 트로프 (teuropeu)

From Latin tropus, from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a manner, style, turn, way; a trope or figure of speech; a mode in music; a mode or mood in logic”), related to τροπή (tropḗ, “solstice; trope; turn”) and τρέπειν (trépein, “to turn”); compare turn of phrase. The verb is derived from the noun.

troop

music, Roman Catholicism: phrase or verse added to the Mass

Is not the trope of muſic, to avoid or ſlide from the cloſe or cadence, common with the trope of rhetoric, of deceiving expectation? Is not the delight of the quavering upon a ſtop in muſic, the ſame with the playing of light upon the water?

1765, Francis Bacon, “The Second Book of Francis Bacon: Of the Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human”, in The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, and Lord High Chancellor of England. In Five Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 53

If the antiphon comes to an end with the “Praeparatio” trope, a musical difficulty is presented by the trope’s cadence. Although the antiphon is in the E-plagal mode and the first three trope elements cadence on E, this trope cadences on G, a rare cadence tone in this mode.

1983, John G. Johnstone, “Beyond a Chant: ‘Tui sunt caeli’ and Its Tropes”, in Studies in the History of Music, volumes 1 (Music and Language), New York, N.Y.: Broude Brothers, pages 24–37; reprinted in Alejandro Enrique Planchart, editor, Embellishing the Liturgy: Tropes and Polyphony, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, page 138

A short cadence at the end of the melody in some early music.

troop

music: short cadence at the end of the melody

The eighty six-note segments were originally tabulated by Hauer and are the basis of his twelve-tone system. Each of [Josef Matthias] Hauer's tropes consists of two hexachords of mutually exclusive content, so that each pair of hexachords includes all twelve tones of the semitonal scale. Only eight hexachords may be associated in this way with their own transpositions. These generate the eight tropes illustrated in examples 141 and 128. Each of the remaining seventy-two hexachords must be paired with a dissimilar hexachord in order to form a trope.

1963, George Perle, “Simultaneity”, in Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 120

twelve-tone technique
twelve-tone technique

A pair of complementary hexachords in twelve-tone technique.

The Torah was chanted in a loud and strong voice so that all could hear. This cantillation of the Torah—trope—is shown by musical notation which serves grammatical and exegetical functions, ta'amay hamikra or ta'amay n'ginah. They put down in a final form an oral tradition that had been maintained for centuries. The Ashkenazim today have six systems of cantillation, each reflective of the texts and time of chanting. For example, on Tishah B'av the tunes are sad and doleful; on Purim the trope resembles a speedy narrative; the readings of Yamim Nora'im are quite majestic, and so on.

1985, Steven M. Brown, “The Languages of Prayer”, in Stephen Garfinkel, editor, Higher and Higher: Making Jewish Prayer Part of Us, Department of Youth Activities, United Synagogue of America, →OCLC, section 3 (The Language of Music), page 45

The trope does not appear on the handwritten Torah scroll, but the assignment of notes for each word was fixed long ago and is accepted by Jewish communities around the world; the trope now appears in nearly every Jewish printed Bible. […] The symbols that signify the trope for the Hebrew text were introduced at the end of the 10th century of the Common Era.

2006, Sara E. Karesh, Mitchell M. Hurvitz, “trope”, in Encyclopedia of Judaism (Encyclopedia of World Religions), New York, N.Y.: Facts On File, Infobase Publishing, page 526, column 1

(Judaism) A cantillation pattern, or one of the marks that represents it.

troop

music, Judaism: cantillation pattern or mark


traditional

en-noun

traditional (countable and uncountable, plural traditionals)

/tɹəˈdɪʃənəl/

/tɹəˈdɪʃnəl/

traditional grip
traditional grip#English

(informal, uncountable, music) Short for traditional grip.


articulate

en-verb

articulate (third-person singular simple present articulates, present participle articulating, simple past and past participle articulated)

articulates (present singular third-person)
articulating (participle present)
articulated (participle past)
articulated (past)

Articulate that passage heavily.

(music, transitive) to attack a note, as by tonguing, slurring, bowing, etc.


disposition

en-noun

disposition (countable and uncountable, plural dispositions)

From Middle English disposicioun, from Middle French disposition, from Latin dispositiōnem, accusative singular of dispositiō, from dispōnō. By surface analysis, dispose + -ition. Doublet of dispositio.

This small harpsichord has a 1 x 4' disposition.

The way in which something or someone is disposed or disposed of (in any sense of those terms); thus:

Control over something, or the results produced by the exercise of such control; thus:

(music) The set of choirs of strings on a harpsichord.


pathogenic

en-adj

pathogenic (comparative more pathogenic, superlative most pathogenic)

more pathogenic (comparative)
most pathogenic (superlative)

Melogenic music represents the wide middle area between the extremes of logogenic and pathogenic music.

2008, Curt Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West, page 42

(music) Consisting of harsh, percussive, nonverbal sounds.


delta blues

(music) A form of blues originating in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States, generally featuring minimal instrumentation and song structure.


blues scale

{\set Staff.midiInstrument=#"alto sax" c'es'f'ges'g'bes'c2}

(music) A minor hexatonic scale originating in the American musical genre blues, consisting of tonic, minor third, fourth, diminished fifth, fifth, and minor seventh, in which notes, particularly the minor third, fourth, diminished fifth, and minor seventh may be bent. It can also be called the minor blues scale when distinguishing it from its only other functional mode the major blues scale.


rag

→ Kashubian: reksa (United States)

table
From Middle English ragge, from Old English ragg (suggested by derivative raggiġ (“shaggy; bristly; ragged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“tuft; shagginess”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, probably related to *rūhaz. Cognate with Swedish ragg. Related to rug.

(slang, theater) A curtain of various kinds.


rag

en-verb

rag (third-person singular simple present rags, present participle ragging, simple past and past participle ragged)

rags (present singular third-person)
ragging (participle present)
ragged (participle past)
ragged (past)

Perhaps from ragged. Compare later ragtime.

(music, obsolete) To add syncopation (to a tune) and thereby make it appropriate for a ragtime song.


dubplate

From dub (“style of reggae music involving mixing of different audio tracks”) + plate (“music record, usually vinyl”).

compound

You heard that new Danny Weed dubplate?

Their dub-plate (unreleased tracks on private pressings) battles are usually limited to JA [Jamaica] and the UK, but they have begun to invade the States with this unique form of entertainment.

1986 April, Roger Steffens, “World Beat”, in Bob Guccione, Jr., editor, Spin, volume 2, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Camouflage Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 19, column 1

The sound systems – the mobile reggae discos with their own d.j.s, their "specials" and "dub plates" (specially recorded rhythms owned by the system), their own local followings – are networks of live wires and speakers, sounds and affects.

1988, Dick Hebdige, “Post-script 1: Vital Strategies”, in Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things (A Comedia Book), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 1990, section 4 (Postmodernism and “The Other Side”), page 215

Various Artists, Soundclash Dubplate Style (Taurus Jamaica)]

[1989 June, “Groove Me: 20 Recommended Current Albums and Reissues”, in Bob Guccione, Jr., editor, Spin, volume 5, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Camouflage Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 66

[Courtney] Cole, who finds his artists through talent shows held at his Ocho Rice Roof Club, says he tries out new tunes on a live audience "first on dubplate [special one-off mixes for sound systems and radio jocks], so we can test again before pressing it."

1993 July 10, Maureen Sheridan, “Secrets of the Dancehall Laboratory: Top Groovemasters Drop Science about Reggae’s Tuffest Trend yet”, in Timothy White, editor, Billboard: The International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment, volume 105, number 28, New York, N.Y.: BPI Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page R-20, column 4

The dubplate is a Jamaican idea: seventies sound systems pressed up their own tracks in order to outdo their rivals. Similarly, jungle's top DJs, desperate for exclusive tracks, spend more than two hundred pounds a week on dubplates—either their own productions or tracks by kindred-spirit producers. Dubplates are also a way of testing out a new track on a club sound system, of seeing how the crowd responds and what scope is for improving the record.

1998, Simon Reynolds, “Roots ’n’ Future: Jungle Takes Over London, 1993–94”, in Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, page 264

By the mid-1970s, companies had begun to release sneak previews of coming releases in dub form on acetates. These rare gems became known as ‘dub[-]plates’.

1999, Eugene Lange, “dub”, in edited by Peter Childs and Mike Storry, Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 163, column 2

Mikey Dread defined the dub plate as "a little pre-release of the thing before it gets to the streets. Back in those days we didn't have CD burners where you could just go and get a copy. You'd have to wait months. So, the dub plate was just taking the same procedure from the mastering room [of the record manufacturing plant] and they just cut this little thing they called an acetate. They cut it right there [in the recording studio]."

2007, Michael E. Veal, “‘Every Spoil is a Style’: The Evolution of Dub Music in the 1970s”, in Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae (Music/Culture), Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, page 51

[A]t Duke Reid's Treasure isle studio the engineer Byron Smith had cut the dub-plate with the vocals accidentally turned down. After rocking the crowd with the original vocal pressing of the song, [Ruddy] Redwood played them this new voiceless version. The crowd went crazy, singing along, and he played the song so many times that night that by morning the acetate was worn out.

2006, Bill Brewster, Frank Broughton, “Reggae: Wreck Up a Version”, in Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, updated edition, New York, N.Y.: Headline Book Publishing, Grove Press, page 127

Dubs originally referred to one-off acetates (eventually called dubplates) that were meant for previewing new music in the 1960s and the praise of an individual sound system in competitive sound clashes[…]. Dubplates are prerecorded endorsements of a particular sound by a reggae artist; they usually follow the melody or lyrics of a popular tune (sometimes a tune sung by that same artist), inserting the name of the sound system and praise for that sound system's skills[…]. In some cases, these improvised lyrics for a dubplate would be cut as records and sold or added to albums[…].

2022, Mark V. Campbell, “Dubbing the Remix and Its Uses”, in Afrosonic Life, New York, N.Y., London: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing, pages 94–95

(music, originally Jamaica) An acetate or vinyl record pressed in very limited numbers, especially one issued to disc jockeys in advance of an official release; specifically (and originally), one containing a piece of dub music (a style of reggae music, often instrumental, involving the mixing of different audio tracks).

dubplate

acetate or vinyl record produced in very limited numbers


larghetto

Borrowed from Italian larghetto, diminutive of largo.

Play larghetto here, even though it’s marked largo.

(music) Slower than adagio but not as slow as largo; nearly andantino.


fermata

en-noun

fermata (countable and uncountable, plural fermatas or fermate)

/ˌfɜːˈmɑːtə/

/ˌfɜːɹˈmɑtə/

Borrowed from Italian fermata, from fermare (“to stop”).

(music) The holding of a note or rest for longer than its usual duration.

延長號

holding a note beyond its usual duration or the notation representing it

(music, countable) The notation ⟨◌͒⟩ of such a prolongation, usually represented as a dot with a semi-circle above or below it, written above or below the prolonged note or rest.


crunchy

en-adj

crunchy (comparative crunchier, superlative crunchiest)

crunchier (comparative)
crunchiest (superlative)

From crunch + -y. The slang sense is derived from the concept of crunchy granola.

(music, informal) Of a chord: containing dissonant intervals.


popular music

en-noun

popular music (usually uncountable, plural popular musics)

(music) Any genre of music that has wide appeal amongst the general public of a society, typically distributed widely by the music industry; typically as seen in contrast to classical music and folk music.

مُوسِيقَى الْبُوب

genre that has wide appeal amongst the general public — see also pop music


phat

en-adj

phat (comparative phatter, superlative phattest)

phatter (comparative)
phattest (superlative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-phat.wav

The term derives from African American Vernacular English as a deliberate misspelling of the word fat.

The song has a phat bass line.

(slang, music) Rich in texture; prominent.


banger

→ Estonian: bänger

→ Finnish: bängeri

From bang + -er. The sausages were so called because of their excess water content and impervious skin, leading to the risk of explosion if not punctured before cooking.

My frequencies are transient and resonate your eardrums / I make bangers, not anthems

2002, Mike Skinner (lyrics and music), “Let's Push Things Forward”, in Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets

Morris' melding of influences ranging from mid-'80s computer technology to Baltimore club bangers to the U.K. rave scene has cemented his reputation as one of London's most formidable DJs.

2008, Billboard, volume 120, number 32, page 44

'Ice Ice Baby' was an absolute banger, though, wasn't it? And knowing the history of that song, it had proper rap credentials.

2012, Mike Skinner, The Story of The Streets, page 31

A thing or person which bangs, in any sense.

(music, slang) A powerfully energetic and/or very good song, especially in hip-hop and dance music.


shell

From Middle English schelle, from Old English sċiell, from Proto-West Germanic *skallju, from Proto-Germanic *skaljō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cleave”).
Compare West Frisian skyl (“peel, rind”), Dutch schil (“peel, skin, rink”), Low German Schell (“shell, scale”), Irish scelec (“pebble”), Latin silex (“pebble, flint”), siliqua (“pod”), Old Church Slavonic сколика (skolika, “shell”). More at shale.
Doublet of sheal.
* (computing): From being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the operating-system internals.

cog

The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.

when Jubal struck the chorded shell

1687, John Dryden, A Song for Cecilia's Day

(music) A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.

lier

music: string instrument, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell

(music) The body of a drum; the often wooden, often cylindrical acoustic chamber, with or without rims added for tuning and for attaching the drum head.


track

→ Kashubian: trak (Canada)

From Middle English trak, tracke, from Old French trac (“track of horses, trail, trace”), of uncertain origin. Likely from a Germanic source, either Old Norse traðk ("a track; path; trodden spot"; > Icelandic traðk (“a track; path; tread”), Faroese traðk (“track; tracks”), Norwegian tråkke (“to trample”)) or from Middle Dutch trec, *trac, treck ("line, row, series"; > Dutch trek (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)), German Low German Treck (“a draught; movement; passage; flow”). See tread, trek.

gloss

"line, row, series"; > Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">trek</i> (“a draft; feature; trait; groove; expedition”)

cog

My favourite track on the album is "Sunshine".

(music) A song or other relatively short piece of music, on a record, separated from others by a short silence.

nummer

a song or other relatively short piece of music, on a record, separated from others by a short silence


rackett

(music) An old wind instrument of the double bassoon kind, having ventages but not keys.


slap

en-noun

slap (countable and uncountable, plural slaps)

From Middle English slappen, of uncertain origin, possibly imitative. Compare Low German Slappe (“slap”), whence also German Schlappe (“defeat”). Compare also Italian sleppa (“slap”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

Havens goes into the terrific Freedom for an encore, which will turn out to be a highlight of the movie; its chopped guitar and conga slaps pre-empt late 90s R&B.

2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “'Groovy, groovy, groovy': listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in The Guardian

(countable, music) The percussive sound produced in slap bass playing.


fungi

See fungee. Sense 2 (“style of folk and popular music”) is apparently from the fact that the music is a blend of different musical instruments and styles, just as the dish (sense 1) is a blend of different flavours.

percussion instrument
percussion instrument

(by extension, music) A style of folk and popular music from the Virgin Islands, traditionally performed by bands consisting of banjo, guitar, ukulele, and washboard with various percussion instruments on rhythm.


blues

en-noun

blues (countable and uncountable, plural blues)

→ Catalan: blues

→ Danish: blues

→ Finnish: blues

→ French: blues

→ Hungarian: blues

→ Icelandic: blús

→ Italian: blues

→ Portuguese: blues

→ Spanish: blues

→ Swedish: blues

Many great blues musicians came from the Mississippi Delta region.

A large portion of modern popular music is influenced by the blues.

(music) A musical form, African-American in origin, generally featuring an eight-bar or twelve-bar blues structure and using the blues scale.

My next number is a blues in G.

(music, always singular) A musical composition following blues forms.


piccolo

(music, rare) An organ stop with the tone of a piccolo flute.


troll

en-verb

troll (third-person singular simple present trolls, present participle trolling, simple past and past participle trolled)

trolls (present singular third-person)
trolling (participle present)
trolled (participle past)
trolled (past)
troll (infinitive)

Spanish: trolear

table
The verb is derived from Late Middle English trollen, trolle (“to go about, wander; to move (something) to and fro, rock; to roll; to turn”) [and other forms], from Old French troller, trôler (“to run here and there; to walk aimlessly, ramble, stroll; (hunting) to wander about looking for game”) (modern French troller); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Middle High German trollen (“to stroll”) (modern German trollen (“(informal) to move slowly, trundle; to push off, toddle off”)), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *truzlōną (“to lumber”), which is probably related to *trudaną (“to step on, tread”) (see further at etymology 1). Doublet of trull.
Verb sense 4.2.2 (“to fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat”) is possibly influenced by trail and/or trawl
The noun is probably derived from the verb. Noun sense 3 (“person who makes or posts inflammatory or insincere statements in an attempt to lure others into combative argument”) is possibly influenced by troll (etymology 1).
cognates
* Middle Low German drullen (“to stroll”) (Low German trullen (“to troll”))

laulaa vuoroin

(transitive, intransitive) to sing the parts of (a catch, round, or similar song) in succession

tokaista

(transitive, intransitive) to say (something) lightly and quickly

kalastama

(transitive, intransitive) to fish in (a place) using a running fishing line

Good Snell, do thou a burthen try / Shall change our sadness into joy: / Such as thou trollest in blythe mood, / On days of sunshine in the wood.

1846, Thomas Cooper, “Canto II”, in The Baron’s Yule Feast: A Christmas-rhyme, London: Jeremiah How […], →OCLC, page 34

Deck the hall with boughs of holly, / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / 'Tis the season to be jolly: / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel, / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! / Troul the ancient Christmas carol. / Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!

1862, Thomas Oliphant, John Thomas, arranger, “Nos Galan. New Year’s Eve. [no. 15]”, in Welsh Melodies, with Welsh and English Poetry […], volume II, London: Addison, Hollier, & Lucas, →OCLC, page 140

Senses relating to the motion of passing around.

(music, archaic) To sing the parts of (a catch, round, or similar song) in succession; also (generally), to sing (a song) freely or in a carefree way, or loudly.

(music, archaic) Of a person: to sing the parts of a catch, round, or similar song in succession; also (generally), to sing freely or in a carefree way, or loudly.

(music, archaic) Of a song: to be sung freely or in a carefree way, or loudly; also, of a tune: to be constantly in someone's mind.

soida päässä

of a tune: to be constantly in someone’s mind


troll

Spanish: trol

And thence the catch and troll, while "laughter, holding both his sides" sheds tears to song and ballad pathetic on the woes of married life, and all the ills that "our flesh is heir to."

1845, [John] Wilson, The Genius, and Character of Burns (Wiley and Putnam’s Library of Choice Reading), New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 103

(music) A song the parts of which are sung in succession; a catch, a round.


fingerstyle

(music) A style of playing a stringed instrument, such as a guitar, which includes the use of the fingers to pluck the strings instead of a pick, or plectrum.


chutney

en-noun

chutney (usually uncountable, plural chutneys)

Borrowed from Hindustani चटनी (caṭnī) / چَٹْنِی (caṭnī).

(music) A style of Indo-Caribbean music from the West Indies, associated especially with Trinidad and Tobago.


prompter

(theater) The person who does the prompting.


variation

variation (usually uncountable, plural variations)

/ˌvɛəɹɪˈeɪʃn̩/

/ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/

/ˌvæɹiˈeɪʃn̩/

/ˌvɛɹiˈeɪʃn̩/

From Middle French variation, from Old French variacion, from Latin variātiō.

(music) A technique where material is repeated with alterations to the melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, texture, counterpoint or orchestration; but with some invariant characteristic, e.g. a ground bass.


variety

variety (countable and uncountable, plural varieties)

From Middle French varieté (“variety”) (modern French variété (“variety; genre, type”)) or directly from its etymon Latin varietās (“difference; diversity, variety”) + English -ty (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives). Varietās is derived from varius (“different, diverse, various; variegated”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to abandon; to give out; to leave”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being). The English word displaced the native Old English mislīcnes.
Sense 1.3.2 (“total number of distinct states of a system; logarithm to the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system”) was coined by the English psychiatrist William Ross Ashby (1903–1972) in his work An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956).
cognates
* Galician variedade (“variety”)
* Italian varietà (“difference; variety”)
* Portuguese variedade (“variety”)
* Spanish variedad (“breed; variety”)

der

(radio, television, theater) Ellipsis of variety performance. or variety show (“a type of entertainment featuring a succession of short, unrelated performances by various artistes such as (depending on the medium) acrobats, comedians, dancers, magicians, singers, etc.”).

variety performance
variety performance#English

variety performance

(radio, television, theater) The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows; also, the production of, or performance in, variety performances or shows.


metaller

(music, informal) One who listens to heavy metal music.


collection

en-noun

collection (countable and uncountable, plural collections)

From Middle English colleccioun, collection, from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem, from collēctus, from colligō (“collect together”), composed of con- + legō (“bring together, gather, collect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).

der

The "collectional information" one receives is ambiguous since the collection { C, E, F, G, A } occurs in the key of C and in the key of F.

2005, Neil Minturn, The Last Waltz of The Band, page 112

In fact, students are often taught that specific collections—diatonic, octatonic, and whole-tone, etc.—typify these composers' compositional language.

2009, Brian Moseley, “Form and Transpositional Combination in George Crumb's Lux Aeterna”, in Bruce Quaglia, Jack Boss, editors, Musical Currents from the Left Coast, page 174

Simply put, the realm of available collections in a largely diatonic environment is much smaller than it is in truly atonal one.

2012, Marguerite Boland, John Link, Elliott Carter Studies, page 22

(music) A set of pitch classes used by a composer.


grinder

From Middle English grinder, grindere, from Old English grindere (“one or that which grinds; grinder”), equivalent to grind + -er.

inh

(music, slang) A fan or performer of grindcore music.


skank

Originally Jamaican, attested from the twentieth century, but earliest source is uncertain. The verb sense be dishonest is evidently older. Perhaps originally onomatopoeic. The dance senses may come from a resemblance to motorcyclists weaving in and out of traffic. Compare skanker.

{\time3/4\tempo4=180\set Staff.midiInstrument=#"electric guitar (muted)"\repeat unfold2{r8a4}\repeat unfold2{r8g4
}}

He took it another step and brought blues into reggae music. I don’t play skank. I don’t play reggae guitar. So I had to call.

2017, Jas Obrecht, “Ben Harper in San Francisco, May 3, 1994”, in Talking Guitar, page 279

(music) A style of rhythmic guitar strumming in ska, reggae, and punk.


shift

en-noun

shift (countable and uncountable, plural shifts)

From Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.

cog

(music) In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.


shift

en-verb

shift (third-person singular simple present shifts, present participle shifting, simple past and past participle shifted)

shifts (present singular third-person)
shifting (participle present)
shifted (participle past)
shifted (past)

(music) In violin-playing, to move the left hand from its original position next to the nut.


prelude

From Middle French prélude (“singing to test a musical instrument”), from Medieval Latin preludium, from Latin praelūdere.

der

(music) A short, free-form piece of music, originally one serving as an introduction to a longer and more complex piece; later, starting with the Romantic period, generally a stand-alone piece.


tromboon

Blend of trombone + bassoon, humorously coined by composer Peter Schickele, attributed to fictitious composer P. D. Q. Bach.

(music) A trombone with the reed and bocal of a bassoon placed instead of the usual mouthpiece, which combines the limitations of both instruments, producing a loud comical sound.


eight-bar blues

en-noun

eight-bar blues (countable and uncountable, plural eight-bar blues)

(music) A blues form built on an eight-measure chord pattern, most typically I, I, IV, I, V7, IV, I, V7, where I, IV and V7 represent the tonic, subdominant and dominant seventh chords respectively.


twelve-bar blues

(music) A blues form built on a twelve-measure chord progression, most typically based around the tonic, subdominant and dominant seventh chords of a key.


module

Borrowed from French module, from Latin modulus (“a small measure, a measure, mode, meter”), diminutive of modus (“measure”) (whence mode). Doublet of modulus and mold.

der

(music, computing) A file containing a music sequence that can be played in a tracker (also called mod or music module).


dominant seventh

G7, the dominant seventh chord of a C major scale

(music) The chord consisting of the fifth, major seventh, ninth and eleventh of a given scale; a seventh chord built on the dominant tone.


subdominant

(music) The triad built on the subdominant tone.


jury

→ Dutch: jury (or via French)

→ Finnish: jyry

→ French: jury (see there for further descendants)

→ Hungarian: zsűri

→ Macedonian: жири (žiri)

→ Norman: jury

→ Norwegian Bokmål: jury

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: jury

→ Portuguese: júri

→ Swedish: jury

From Middle English jure, from Anglo-Norman juree, from Medieval Latin iūrāta, from Latin iūrō (“I swear or take an oath”).

The jury which decides on the first night usually seals the fate of the season.

1828, The New Monthly Magazine, page 418

The widespread idea that before a first-night the audience, dressed to the nose, dines en masse at the Colony and proceeds elegantly to the scene in Hispanos is as fabulous as that which imagines it assembles at Lindy's delicatessen in yesterday's shirt and moves on to the theatre in garbage wagons. And no less spurious is the theory that, in either case or in both together, the jury is possessed of a remarkably rich acumen in the matter of theatrical values.

1971, George Jean Nathan, The Entertainment of a Nation: Or, Three-sheets in the Wind, page 130

(theater, slang) The audience attending the first night of a performance, whose reaction may determine whether it succeeds or fails.


edgy

en-adj

edgy (comparative edgier, superlative edgiest)

edgier (comparative)
edgiest (superlative)

From edge + -y. Compare German eckig (“angular, edgy”).

(entertainment, advertising) Creatively challenging; cutting edge; leading edge.

(entertainment, advertising) On the edge between acceptable and offensive; pushing the boundaries of good taste; risqué.

provokující

on the edge between acceptable and offensive


first violin

(music) The lead or primary violin role in an orchestra or other ensemble, or in a musical composition, that typically contains the melody and is often more technically demanding than the second violin role. The first violin role is played by a first violinist, typically the best violinist in the orchestra.

(British, music) The leader of the violin section of a symphony orchestra; the concertmaster.


entry

en-noun

entry (countable and uncountable, plural entries)

exit

antonym(s) of “doorway that provides a means of entering a building”

Inherited from Middle English entre, from Old French entree (feminine past participle of the verb entrer, Modern French entrée). From Latin intrō. Doublet of entrada and entrée.

(music) The point when a musician starts to play or sing; entrance.

aloitus

music: point when a musician starts to perform


alfabeto

Borrowed from Italian alfabeto (“alphabet”). Doublet of alphabet.

The monograph should deal not only with modal scales (their range, ambitus, "centonized" gestures, cadences, and structural application in music) but would similarly need to deal with the guitar's alfabeto, the labyrinth of guitar chords, movable chords, transposed chords, the progressions of B quadro and B molle in the alfabeto books, and so forth.

1987, Journal of the Lute Society of America, volumes 17-18, page 127

Composers for harpsichord, lute, viol, and guitar often placed chords or ornaments on notes in the positions of those strummed downward in the alfabeto tablatures, and composers for all instruments gave longer values to many of them.

1987, Betty Bang Mather, Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: A Handbook for Performance, page 30

In the Italian system, each letter of the alfabeto represents a chord formation on the guitar (the letter A, for example, represents a G-major chord).

1993, Stanley Yates, The baroque guitar, late Spanish style as represented by Santiago de Murcia in the Salvidar manuscript (1732)

(music, historical) An early Italian alphabetic notation system used to describe chords.


progression

progression (countable and uncountable, plural progressions)

/pɹəˈɡɹɛʃən/


jungle

jungle (countable and uncountable, plural jungles)

→ Catalan: jungla

→ Czech: džungle

→ Danish: jungle

→ Dutch: jungle

→ French: jungle
→ Romanian: junglă

desctree

→ German: Dschungel, Tschungel
→ Hungarian: dzsungel

→ Esperanto: ĝangalo

→ Italian: giungla

→ Japanese: ジャングル (janguru)

→ Korean: 정글 (jeonggeul)

→ Polish: dżungla

→ Russian: джу́нгли (džúngli)
→ Armenian: ջունգլի (ǰungli)
→ Georgian: ჯუნგლი (ǯungli)

→ Serbo-Croatian: džungla

→ Slovak: džungľa

→ Slovene: džungla

→ Spanish: jungla

→ Swedish: djungel

→ Ukrainian: джу́нглі (džúnhli)

→ Welsh: jyngl

/ˈd͡ʒʌŋ.ɡ(ə)l/

Borrowed from Hindustani جَن٘گَل (jaṅgal) / जंगल (jaṅgal), from Sanskrit जङ्गल (jaṅgala, “arid, sterile, desert”). First appears c. 1776 in a translation by Nathaniel Halhed.

der

you can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the monkey

Always more multiracial than other post-Rave scenes, Hardcore got “blacker” as hiphop, Ragga, dub and Soul influences kicked in, and by 93 it had evolved into Jungle. By this point, Hardcore/Jungle (the terms remain interchangeable) was universally scorned by dance hipsters and banished from the media.

1994 September, Simon Reynolds, “Above The Treeline”, in The Wire

In large part, happycore was the result of an exodus of white ravers from the jungle scene, in reaction to the influx of black youth and the attendant mood change from bonhomie to surliness.

2013, Simon Reynolds, Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture, page 291

electronic dance music
electronic dance music

(music, uncountable) A style of electronic dance music and precursor of drum and bass.


transient

en-adj

transient (comparative more transient, superlative most transient)

more transient (comparative)
most transient (superlative)

From Late Latin transiēnt- (for classical transeunt-), stem of transiēns, present participle of transire (“to go over, to pass”).

مُؤَقَّت

passing or disappearing with time; transitory


tonic

(music) Pertaining to or based upon the first note of a diatonic scale.


tonic

(music) The first note of a diatonic scale; the keynote.

(music) The triad built on the tonic note.


catalogue

/ˈkæt.əˌlɒɡ/

/ˈkæt.əˌlɔɡ/

/ˈkæt.əˌlɑɡ/

From Middle English cathaloge, from Old French catalogue, from Late Latin catalogus, itself from Ancient Greek κατάλογος (katálogos, “enrollment, register”), from καταλέγω (katalégō, “to recount, make a list”), from κατα- (kata-, “downwards, towards”) + λέγω (légō, “to say, to speak, to tell”).

katalog

a systematic list of names, books, pictures etc.

(music) A complete list of a recording artist's or a composer's songs.


rock and roll

/ˈɹɒk ən(d)ˈɹəʊl/

From rock (move back and forth) + and + roll; originally a verb phrase common among African Americans, meaning "to have sexual intercourse"; it was a euphemism that appeared in song titles since at least 1914 (Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me With One Steady Roll").
As a name for a specific style of popular music from the early 1950s, popularized by disc jockey Alan Freed in reference to the euphemistic use in song titles.

This couple performs rock and roll music when he shreds the electric guitar while his girlfriend plays the drums!

(music) A genre of popular music that evolved in the 1950s from a combination of rhythm and blues and country music, characterized by electric guitars, strong rhythms, and youth-oriented lyrics.


prompt

en-verb

prompt (third-person singular simple present prompts, present participle prompting, simple past and past participle prompted)

prompts (present singular third-person)
prompting (participle present)
prompted (participle past)
prompted (past)

From French prompt, from Latin prōmptus (“visible, apparent, evident”), past participle of prōmō (“to take or bring out or forth, produce, bring to light”), from prō (“forth, forward”) + emō (“to take, acquire, buy”).

der

If he forgets his words I will prompt him.

(transitive, theater and television) To show or tell (an actor/person) the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing.

sufloj

to show or tell an actor/person the words they should be saying, or actions they should be doing


paradiddle

/ˈpæɹəˌdɪdəl/

Imitative. May be related to [Attic] Greek, παραδίδωμι (paradídōmi) 1) to give into the hands (of another) 2) to give over into (one's) power or use 2a) to deliver to one something to keep, use, take care of, manage

I mean, as a drummer, you're sitting at a practice pad for hours on end, doing paradiddles and all the exercises you learn for your craft.

2023 December 8, The Big Issue, Melbourne, page 33, column 2

(music) A percussive exercise (one of 26 drum rudiments per the National Association of Rudimental Drummers or one of 40 per the Percussive Arts Society) which involves playing four even strokes in the order ‘right left right right’ or ‘left right left left.’


bashment

en-noun

bashment (countable and uncountable, plural bashments)

(slang, uncountable, music, especially Jamaican) Dancehall music.


alienation

alienation (usually uncountable, plural alienations)

From Middle English alienacioun, borrowed from Old French alienacion, itself borrowed from Latin aliēnātiōnem.


tip

From Middle English tip, typ, tippe, probably from an unrecorded Old English *typpa, *typpe, from Proto-Germanic *tuppijô, *tuppijǭ (“tip”), diminutive of *tuppaz (“top”).
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tip (“tip”), West Frisian tippe, tip (“tip”), Dutch tip (“tip”), German Low German Tip, Tippel (“tip”), dialectal German Zipf (“tip”) (diminutive Zipfel used in Standard German), Danish tip (“tip”), Swedish tipp (“tip”), Icelandic typpi (“knob, pin, penis”). Compare also Saterland Frisian Timpe (“tip”), West Frisian timpe (“tip”), Old English tæppa, Albanian thep (“tip, point”).

(music) The end of a bow of a stringed instrument that is not held.


nervous hit

But it hardly mattered; her singing (including "My Own Best Friend" made into a solo) and performing were so strong that few quibbled, especially as she was accomplishing a valiant task by selling out a new, somewhat nervous hit while its regular star recovered.

(theater, idiomatic, England) A production which receives generally favorable notice, but is not assured of success.


set theory

set theory (usually uncountable, plural set theories)

(music) Musical set theory, a systematic approach to describing musical objects and their relationships.


bridesmaid

From bride + -s- + maid. Sports/entertainment sense: in reference to the saying always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

He had taken her for a dogsbody, a beta fish, a bridesmaid, a ride-along; he had looked right past her, as likely many people did.

2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 319

(sports, entertainment, social dynamics) A person or team that perennially finishes well, but never first.


fugue

Borrowed from French fugue, from Italian fuga (“flight, ardor”), from Latin fuga (“act of fleeing”), from fugiō (“to flee”); compare Ancient Greek φυγή (phugḗ). Apparently from the metaphor that the first part starts alone on its course, and is pursued by later parts.

(music) A contrapuntal piece of music wherein a particular melody is played in a number of voices, each voice introduced in turn by playing the melody.


bleep

bleep (countable and uncountable, plural bleeps)

See, there are a huge number of people in this city who look like goths and talk the talk and claim to enjoy much of the same music I do, so it confuses me somewhat that the clubs all play bleep. I would have thought there would be enough people to make something else work.

2005, Jennie Kermode, “What is gothic?”, in alt.gothic (Usenet)

A number of nights now steer away from the EBM of yesteryear. The scene is alive and kicking with plenty of new bands that aren't reliant on synths. All you have to do is look. At InsanitoriuM we have a large, young, crowd that would up and leave if we started playing bleep at them, and we're not alone.

2005, oldgoth, “Theaving Goths”, in uk.people.gothic (Usenet)

(music, slang, uncountable) A broad genre of electronic music with goth and industrial influences, as opposed to traditional gothic rock.


idiomatic

en-adj

idiomatic (comparative more idiomatic, superlative most idiomatic)

more idiomatic (comparative)
most idiomatic (superlative)

From Ancient Greek ἰδιωματικός (idiōmatikós, “related to an idiom”), from ἰδίωμα (idíōma, “idiom”).

uder

(music) Relating to parts or pieces which are written both within the natural physical limitations of the instrument and human body and, less so or less often, the styles of playing used on specific instruments.

idiomatyczny

parts or pieces of or styles of playing music


fi

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


pluck

en-verb

pluck (third-person singular simple present plucks, present participle plucking, simple past and past participle plucked or (obsolete) pluckt)

plucks (present singular third-person)
plucking (participle present)
plucked (participle past)
plucked (past)
pluckt (obsolete participle past)
pluckt (obsolete past)

From Middle English plucken, plukken, plockien, from Old English pluccian, ploccian (“to pluck, pull away, tear”), also Old English plyċċan ("to pluck, pull, snatch; pluck with desire"), from Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną (“to pluck”), of uncertain and disputed origin. Perhaps related to Old English pullian (“to pull, draw; pluck off; snatch”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian plukje (“to pluck”), West Frisian plôkje (“to pick, pluck”), Dutch plukken (“to pluck”), Limburgish plógte (“to pluck”), Low German plukken (“to pluck”), German pflücken (“to pluck, pick”), Danish and Norwegian plukke (“to pick”), Swedish plocka (“to pick, pluck, cull”), Icelandic plokka, plukka (“to pluck, pull”). More at pull.
An alternative etymology suggests Proto-Germanic *plukkōną, *plukkijaną may have been borrowed from an assumed Vulgar Latin *pilūc(i)cāre, a derivative of Latin pilāre (“deprive of hair, make bald, depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). The Oxford English Dictionary, however, finds difficulties with this and cites gaps in historical evidence.
The noun sense of "heart, liver, and lights of an animal" comes from it being plucked out of the carcass after the animal is killed; the sense of "fortitude, boldness" derives from this meaning, originally being a boxing slang denoting a prize-ring, with semantic development from "heart", the symbol of courage, to "fortitude, boldness".

cog

Whereas a piano strikes the string, a harpsichord plucks it.

(transitive, music) To play (a single string on a musical instrument) by pulling and then releasing it, such as on a guitar.

彈撥

music: to play a single string by pulling and then releasing it


zufolo

(music) A little flute or flageolet, especially that which is used to teach birds.


zoppo

(music) Alternately with and without syncopation.


Americana

/əˌmɛɹɪˈkænə/

/əˌmɛɹɪˈkɑːnə/

/əˌmɛɹɪˈkeɪnə/

The music that became Americana crossed racial lines very early, becoming one of the major integrating forces in America. The chapter shows how artists such as Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers were creating and playing Americana long before we had a name for what they were doing.

2017, Michael Scott Cain, The Americana Revolution, Rowman & Littlefield, page xxx

A quarter-century later, the Band’s music provided a key template for the acts first labeled Americana, including Son Volt, Wilco and Lucinda Williams, as well as for their sonic heirs.]

[2023 August 9, “Robbie Robertson, 80, Dies; Canadian Songwriter Captured American Spirit”, in The New York Times

(music) An amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles.


cadenza

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-cadenza.wav

Borrowed from Italian cadenza, from Latin cadentia. Doublet of cadence and chance.

Yes, laugh, as I want to laugh for instance in the concert hall when the orchestra trundles to a stop and the virtuoso at his piano, hunched like a demented vet before the bared teeth of this enormous black beast of sound, lifts up deliquescent hands and prepares to plunge into the cadenza.

(music) A part of a piece of music, such as a concerto, that is very decorative and is played by a single musician.


flipper

From flip + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Flappert (“flipper, wing”).

The flipper is designed to give support by standing at a 90-degree angle to the flat. It probably gets its name from its appearance: cut out like a piece of profile scenery, it resembles the flipper of a marine animal, […]

1998, Martin Harrison, The Language of Theatre, page 104

When standing alone, a flat may have a small extension, a FLIPPER, for added strength.

2013, Jonathan Law, The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre

(theater) A small flat used to support a larger one.


filk

Originally "filk music" was a typo for "folk music" in a never-published essay on the influence of Science Fiction and Fantasy on folk music. Its first known deliberate use was by Karen Kruse Anderson in Die Zeitschrift für Vollständigen Unsinn (The Journal for Utter Nonsense) #774 (June 1953), for a song written by science-fiction author Poul Anderson.

The blame/credit (choose one) for the first filk song is a little dubious. Like the man who tried to sit on two stools, it falls in the middle, between Poul Anderson who wrote a filk song called Barbarous Allen and Karen Anderson who egged him on and published it in Zed #774.

1955 June, Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson (writing as "Petronius Arbiter Kingsley"), “Filk Song”, in Die Zeitschrift für Vollständigen Unsinn (aka The Zed), number 780, page 13

And the permanent exhibit area offers a filk performance on a small stage so that neophytes can sample more esoteric interests.

2000, Camille Bacon-Smith, Science Fiction Culture, University of Pennsylvania Press, page 38

2006, Robert T. Balder, quoted in Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing, →ISBN, page 97,
I’m also involved in what is called filk music. This is music for and by fans of Fantasy and Science Fiction. […] Filk is nearly as big a part of my creative life as comics, and I have similarly made many friends among the creative people in that community.

Music can be very important in fan texts and activities. Fans write and perform songs at gatherings about characters from television shows, not unlike the way that folk songs are sung in folk clubs. This can be seen in the name of this fan form: filk song. According to Jenkins [in Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture], filk songs take their cue from commercial culture. They are about the characters from commercial television series, but ‘Filk turns commercial culture back into folk culture, existing as a mediator between two musical traditions. Its raw materials come from commercial culture; its logic is from folk culture’ (1992: 270).

2007, Brian Longhurst, Popular Music and Society, Polity, page 236

(music) About or inspired by science fiction, fantasy, horror, science, and/or subjects of interest to fans of speculative fiction; frequently, being a song whose lyrics have been altered to refer to science fiction; parodying. (However, much filk music is original rather than parodic.)


clamshell

(often attributive) Any object with some other resemblance to either one or both halves of the shell of a clam.

(music) An amphitheater, especially an outdoor amphitheater; the semi-circular acoustic backdrop behind and above the performers.


poppy

en-adj

poppy (comparative poppier or more poppy, superlative poppiest or most poppy)

poppier (comparative)
more poppy (comparative)
poppiest (superlative)
most poppy (superlative)

From pop(ular) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the quality of’).

suffix

I thought Sparks were great; they were very poppy for Island Records. They were considered an oddity but you have to remember that at the time Roxy Music, now everyone's seminal band, were seen as very poppy.

2010, Daryl Easlea, “Island Life”, in Talent is an Asset: The Story of Sparks, London, New York, N.Y.: Omnibus Press

(music) Typical of, or in the style of, pop music.


movement

en-noun

movement (countable and uncountable, plural movements)

From Middle English mevement, from Old French movement (modern French mouvement), from movoir + -ment; cf. also Medieval Latin movimentum, from Latin movere (“move”). Doublet of moment and momentum. In this sense, displaced native Old English styring, which led to Modern English stirring.
Morphologically move + -ment.

eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

Beethoven's movements

(music) A large division of a larger composition.

樂章

music: division of a larger musical composition

(music) Melodic progression, accentual character, tempo or pace.


concerto

/kənˈt͡ʃɛɹtoʊ/

From Italian concerto. Doublet of concert.

(music) A piece of music for one or more solo instruments and orchestra.

協奏曲

a piece of music for one or more solo instruments and orchestra


mixture

mixture (countable and uncountable, plural mixtures)

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French misture, from Latin mixtūra (“a mixing”), from mixtus, perfect passive participle of misceō (“mix”); compare mix.


sink

a bathroom sink sink (canonical)
sinks (plural)

From Middle English synken, from Old English sincan, from Proto-West Germanic *sinkwan, from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sengʷ- (“to fall, sink”).
Compare West Frisian sinke, Low German sinken, Dutch zinken, German sinken, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål synke, Swedish sjunka. In the causative sense, it replaced Old English senċan (“make sink”) from Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną.

der

(theater) A stage trapdoor for shifting scenery.


shoulder

From Middle English schuldre, sholder, shulder, schulder, from Old English sculdra, sculdor (“shoulder”), from Proto-West Germanic *skuldru (“shoulder”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), see shield. Cognate with Old Frisian skuldere (“shoulder”) (West Frisian skouder (“shoulder”)), Middle Low German scholder (“shoulder”), Low German Schuller (“shoulder”), Dutch schouder (“shoulder”), German Schulter (“shoulder”).

inh

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

(of an object) The portion between the neck and the body.

(music) The rounded portion of a stringed instrument where the neck joins the body.


hopper

From Middle English hoppere, alteration of *hoppe (found in grashoppe (“grasshopper”)), from Old English *hoppa (“one who hops, hopper”), equivalent to hop + -er. Cognate with Dutch hopper (“hopper”), Swedish hoppare (“hopper, jumper”), Icelandic hoppari (“hopper”).


chuck

Probably from Old French chuquer, later choquer (“to knock, hit”).

(music) On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc., the muting of a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.


chuck

en-verb

chuck (third-person singular simple present chucks, present participle chucking, simple past and past participle chucked)

chucks (present singular third-person)
chucking (participle present)
chucked (participle past)
chucked (past)

(music) On rhythm guitar or mandolin etc.: to mute a chord by lifting the fretting fingers immediately after strumming, producing a percussive effect.


authentic

en-adj

authentic (comparative more authentic, superlative most authentic)

more authentic (comparative)
most authentic (superlative)

non-authentic

antonym(s) of “not of the claimed origin”

From Middle English authentik, from Old French autentique, from Latin authenticus, from Ancient Greek αὐθεντικός (authentikós, “principal, genuine”), from Ancient Greek αὐθέντης (authéntēs, “lord, master”).

der

Designating a mode having the final as the lowest note.

Designating a cadence in which the dominant chord precedes the tonic.


viola

en-noun

viola (plural violas or (senses 1 and 2, uncommon) viole)

From Italian viola, from Old Occitan viola (modern Occitan viula), from Medieval Latin vitula (“stringed instrument”), possibly from Frankish *fiþulā (“violin, fiddle”). Doublet of viol. Also possibly a doublet of fiddle.

der

(music) An organ stop having a similar tone.

(music) A 10-string steel-string acoustic guitar, used in Brazilian folk music.

(music) A berimbau viola, the smallest member of the berimbau used in capoeira music.


rush

en-verb

rush (third-person singular simple present rushes, present participle rushing, simple past and past participle rushed)

rushes (present singular third-person)
rushing (participle present)
rushed (participle past)
rushed (past)

Perhaps from Middle English ruschen, russchen (“to rush, startle, make a loud rushing noise”), from Old English hrysċan (“to jolt, startle”), from Proto-West Germanic *hurskijan, from Proto-Germanic *hurskijaną (“to startle, drive”), from *hurskaz (“fast, rapid, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run, hurry”).
Cognate with Old High German hursken (“to hurry, speed, incite, accelerate”), Old English horsc (“quick, quick-witted, clever”).
etymology note
An alternative etymology traces rush via Middle English rouschen (“to rush”) from Old English *rūscian (“to rush”) from Proto-Germanic *rūskōną (“to rush, storm, be fierce, be cruel”), a variant (with formative k) of Proto-Germanic *rūsōną (“to be cruel, storm, rush”) from Proto-Indo-European *(o)rewə- (“to drive, move, agitate”), making it akin to Old High German rosc, rosci (“quick”), Middle Low German rūschen (“to rush”), Middle High German rūschen, riuschen (“to rush”) (German rauschen (“to rush”)), North Frisian ruse (“to rush”), Middle Dutch ruuscen (“to make haste”), Middle Dutch rūsen (“to rush”) (Dutch ruisen (“to rush”)), Danish ruse (“to rush”), Swedish rusa (“to rush”). Compare Middle High German rūsch (“a charge, rush”). Influenced by Middle English russhen (“to force back”) from Anglo-Norman russher, russer from Old French ruser, rëuser.
Alternatively, according to the OED, perhaps an adaptation of Anglo-Norman russher, russer (“to force back, down, out of place, by violent impact", "to pull out or drag off violently or hastily”), from Old French re(h)usser, ruser (although the connection of the forms with single -s- and double -ss- is dubious; also adopted in English ruse; French ruser (“to retreat, drive back”)), from an assumed Vulgar Latin *refūsāre and Latin refundō (“I cause to flow back”), although connection to the same Germanic root is also possible. More at rouse.

der

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


trance

en-noun

trance (countable and uncountable, plural trances)

French: trance

From Middle English traunce, from Anglo-Norman transe (“fear of coming evil; passage from life to death”), from transir (“to be numb with fear; to die, pass on”), from Latin trānseō (“to cross over”).

der

(uncountable, music) Short for trance music (“genre of electronic dance music”).


bumper

Dutch: bumper

Japanese: バンパー (banpā)

Korean: 범퍼 (beompeo)

Russian: ба́мпер (bámper)

(music) An extra musician (not notated in the score) who assists the principal French horn by playing less-exposed passages, so that the principal can save their 'lip' for difficult solos. Also applied to other sections of the orchestra.


transition

en-noun

transition (countable and uncountable, plural transitions)

/tɹænˈsɪʒən/

/tɹɑːnˈsɪʒən/

From Middle French transition, from Latin transitio.

filtered-popping recursive transition network

(music) A brief modulation; a passage connecting two themes.


telltale

From tell + tale, perhaps dissimilated from earlier taleteller, from Middle English tale tellere (literally “tale teller”).

der

(music) A movable piece of ivory, lead, or other material, connected to the bellows of an organ, whose position indicates when the wind is exhausted.


twee pop

This belatedness is reflected in Kaya Oakes's suggestion that twee pop begins in the early 1990s, post-Nirvana[…]

2016, Pete Dale, Anyone Can Do It: Empowerment, Tradition and the Punk Underground, Routledge

(music) A subgenre of indie pop music with simple melodies and lyrics, usually about love.


tuner

(entertainment industry, informal) A musical.


wind chimes

(music) A chime constructed from tubes, rods, bells, etc. made of wood, glass, metal or ceramic, suspended outside a building in such a way that they tinkle pleasantly when moved by the wind.

бятърни камбанки

chime made from suspended wooden, metal, etc. tubes, bells and rods that tinkle when moved by the wind


regal

From Middle French régale, possibly from Old French regol (“a gutter, channel”).

(music) A small, portable organ whose sound is produced by brass beating reeds without amplifying resonators. Its tone is keen and rich in harmonics. The regal was common in the 16th and 17th centuries, and has been revived for the performance of music from those times.

(music) An organ stop of the reed family, furnished with a normal beating reed, but whose resonator is a fraction of its natural length. In the 16th and 17th centuries these stops took a multitude of forms. Today only one survives that is of universal currency, the so-called vox humana.


tango

From Rioplatense Spanish tango, probably from a Niger-Congo language (compare Ibibio tamgu (“to dance”)).

(music) A piece of music suited to such a dance.


conduct

en-verb

conduct (third-person singular simple present conducts, present participle conducting, simple past and past participle conducted)

conducts (present singular third-person)
conducting (participle present)
conducted (participle past)
conducted (past)

From Late Latin conductus (“defense, escort”), from Latin conductus, perfect passive participle of condūcō (“bring together”); see also conduce. Doublet of conduit.

der

For a while, Walter Pohlmann, a well-known German conductor, conducted the orchestra in Compound 3. Later, Willi Mets, who had conducted the world-renowned Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, conducted the Compound 3 orchestra.

2006, Michael R. Waters, Mark Long, William Dickens, Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne

(transitive, music) To direct, as the leader in the performance of a musical composition.