break

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

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

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

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

tauko

music: short section of music in which some performers stop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

passaggio

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


break

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

gloss

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

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

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


break

en-verb

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

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

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

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


attack

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

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

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

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


family

en-noun

family (countable and uncountable, plural families)

Jamaican Creole: faambli, fambili

Tok Pisin: famili

Sranan Tongo: famiri

→ Chuukese: famini

→ Malay: famili

→ Maori: whāmere

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

عَائِلَة

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

the family that lays together stays together

the family that prays together stays together

the family that sleeps together keeps together

the brass family;  the violin family

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

ընտանիք

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


analysis

analysis (countable and uncountable, plural analyses)

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

language analysis for the determination of origin

List of terms used in mathematical analysis

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


slide

en-verb

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

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

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

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

cog

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

liukua

music: to smoothly pass from one note to another


slide

→ Czech: slajd

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

→ Persian: اسلاید (eslâyd)

→ Polish: slajd

→ Portuguese: slide

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

(traditional Irish music and dance) A lively dance from County Kerry, in 12/8 time.

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


hit

en-verb

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

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

miss

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

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

cog

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

let the door hit you where the good Lord split you

not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

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

(transitive, music, informal) To commence playing.


string

en-noun

string (countable and uncountable, plural strings)

Tok Pisin: string

→ Dutch: string

→ Finnish: stringit

→ French: string

→ German: String

desc

מחרוז//מַחְרֹזֶת

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

→ Japanese: ストリング (sutoringu)

→ Norwegian Bokmål: streng (semantic loan)

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: streng (semantic loan)

→ Polish: stringi

→ Portuguese: estrém; string

→ Swedish: string

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

cog

στραγγαλόομαι

弦

any similar long, thin and flexible object

弓弦

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

a violinstring

a bowstring

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

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

(music, metonymically, countable) A stringed instrument.

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


swing

en-verb

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

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

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

lyödä kierre

cricket: to make the ball move sideways in its trajectory

at church every time the doors swing open

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

svengata

music: to produce a bouncy, uneven rhythm


swing

en-noun

swing (countable and uncountable, plural swings)

what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts

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

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

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


ride

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


acoustic

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

صَوْتِيّ

pertaining to hearing or the science of sounds

acoustic guitar, acoustic piano

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

акустичен

producing or produced without electrical amplification


do

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

coin

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


split

→ Irish: spliota

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

cog

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


crisis

From Latin crisis, from Ancient Greek κρίσις (krísis, “a separating, power of distinguishing, decision, choice, election, judgment, dispute”), from κρίνω (krínō, “pick out, choose, decide, judge”).

der

(drama) A point in a drama at which a conflict reaches a peak before being resolved.


violin

→ Japanese: バイオリン (baiorin)

→ Korean: 바이올린 (baiollin)

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

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

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


guitar

→ Amharic: ጊታር (gitar)

→ Bengali: গিটার (giṭar)

→ Cantonese: 結他／结他 (git3 taa1)

→ Gujarati: ગિટાર (giṭār)

→ Hindi: गिटार (giṭār)

→ Irish: giotár

→ Japanese: ギター (gitā)

→ Hakka: 吉他 (kí-tá)

→ Hokkien: 吉他 (gì-tà, gih-tah)

→ Korean: 기타 (gita)

→ Mandarin: 吉他 (jítā)

→ Scottish Gaelic: giotàr

→ Sidamo: giitare

→ Thai: กีตาร์ (gii-dtâa)

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

der

Arabic قِيثَارَة (qīṯāra)

Learning to strum the guitar rhythmically is essential.

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

The band is looking for a new guitar player.

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

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


act

en-noun

act (countable and uncountable, plural acts)

From Middle English acte, from Old French acte, from Latin ācta (“register of events”), plural of āctum (“decree, law”), from agere (“to do, to act”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éǵeti. Compare German Akte (“file”). Partially displaced deed, from Old English dǣd (“act, deed”).

The pivotal moment in the play was in the first scene of the second act.

(countable, drama) A division of a theatrical performance.

գործողություն

drama: division of theatrical performance


cut

cut (countable and uncountable, plural cuts)

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

leikkaus

notch, passage, or channel made by cutting or digging

The director asked the cast to note down the following cuts.

(especially theater, film) A passage omitted or to be omitted from a play, movie script, speech, etc.


augment

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


stab

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

der

a horn stab

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


bridge

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

ацҳа

construction or natural feature that spans a divide

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

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

မြင်းမိုရ်

(music, lutherie) piece on string instruments

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

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

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


bridge

en-verb

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

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

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

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

fondre

music: to transition from one piece or section to another


comb

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

cog

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


blade

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

teh

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

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

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


piano

en-noun

piano (plural pianos or (archaic) pianoes)

pianos (plural)
pianoes (archaic plural)

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

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

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

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


piano

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


piano

en-adj

piano (comparative more piano, superlative most piano)

more piano (comparative)
most piano (superlative)


cook

en-verb

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

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

→? Cantonese: 焗 (guk⁶)

→ Norman: coutchi

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

coinage

Audio (UK) "to cook"

some speakers from Northern England and Ireland

cuck (most accents without the foot-strut split)

there's more than one way to cook an egg

On the Wagner piece, the orchestra was cooking!

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

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

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


brass

en-noun

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)

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

unc

uncertain

gloss

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

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

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

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

духов

related to brass instruments (attributive use)


base

en-noun

base (countable and uncountable, plural bases)

acid

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

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

أَسَاس

something from which other things extend


horizontal

en-adj

horizontal (comparative more horizontal, superlative most horizontal)

more horizontal (comparative)
most horizontal (superlative)

/ˌhɒɹɪˈzɒntəl/

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


vertical

vertical (comparative more vertical, superlative most vertical)

more vertical (comparative)
most vertical (superlative)

Borrowed from Middle French vertical, from Late Latin verticālis.

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


cover

en-noun

cover (countable and uncountable, plural covers)

→ Hijazi Arabic: كَڤَر (kavar)

→ Portuguese: cover

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

cog

throw nickels around like manhole covers

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


cover

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


cover

en-verb

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

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

→ German: covern

→ Danish: lave en cover

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


femme

en-adj

femme (comparative more femme, superlative most femme)

more femme (comparative)
most femme (superlative)

Borrowed from French femme (“woman”). Doublet of feme, femina, and hembra.

Admittedly, Kiedis was concerned about the lack of femme rockers on the bill: the only women featured were in British band Lush, who would open each day's festivities before a few hundred curious onlookers.

2009, Jeff Apter, Fornication: The Red Hot Chili Peppers Story

High heels are something like neckties for women, in that it can be harder to look both formal and femme without them.

2019 March 20, Summer Brennan, “Sex, power, oppression: why women wear high heels”, in The Guardian

(chiefly Canada, US, journalism, entertainment) Pertaining to a femme; feminine, female.


flat

flat (comparative flatter, superlative flattest)

flatter (comparative)
flattest (superlative)

bumpy

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

→ Portuguese: flat

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

inh

He delivered the speech in a flat tone.

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

(music, voice) Without variations in pitch.

Your A string is flat.

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


flat

The key of E♭ has three flats.

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

mol

music: note played a semitone lower than a natural


flat

en-verb

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

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

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

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


whip

→ Irish: fuip

⇒ Jamaican Creole: wip

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

der

Any of various pieces that operate with a quick vibratory motion

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


set

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

cog

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

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

en:musical performance comprising several pieces

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

He plays the set on Saturdays.


flame

en-noun

flame (countable and uncountable, plural flames)

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

der

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

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


organ

→ Korean: 오르간 (oreugan)

→ Maori: ōkana

→ Vietnamese: oóc-gan

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

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


space

en-noun

space (countable and uncountable, plural spaces)

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

boşluq

gap between written characters, lines etc.

Fully Automated Luxury Queer Space Communism

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

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

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

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

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


wedge

en-noun

wedge (countable and uncountable, plural wedges)

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

Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.

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


long

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

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


plate

→ Maori: pereti

→ Hindi: प्लेट (pleṭ)

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


heavy

From Middle English hevy, heviȝ, from Old English hefiġ, hefeġ, hæfiġ (“heavy; important, grave, severe, serious; oppressive, grievous; slow, dull”), from Proto-West Germanic *habīg (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Germanic *habīgaz (“heavy, hefty, weighty”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to take, grasp, hold”).
Cognates:
Cognate with Scots hevy, havy, heavy (“heavy”), Dutch hevig (“violent, severe, intense, acute”), Middle Low German hēvich (“violent, fierce, intense”), German hebig (compare heftig (“fierce, severe, intense, violent, heavy”)), Icelandic höfugur (“heavy, weighty, important”), Latin capāx (“large, wide, roomy, spacious, capacious, capable, apt”).

cog

Payton boasted his range included "leading parts or genteel heavies, character old men, dialect parts, old women and, on occasion, soubrettes and leading ladies"; however, he was most at ease in light comedy roles.

2008, William L. Slout, Theatre in a Tent, page 28

(theater, archaic, slang) A serious theatrical role.


wind

en-noun

wind (countable and uncountable, plural winds)

Tok Pisin: win

Torres Strait Creole: win

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

it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good

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

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

ду́хова се́кция

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


metal

metal (countable and uncountable, plural metals)

nonmetal

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

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

аметалл

atomic element or material made of such atoms

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


metal

en-adj

metal (comparative more metal, superlative most metal)

more metal (comparative)
most metal (superlative)

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


suspension

en-noun

suspension (countable and uncountable, plural suspensions)

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

der

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

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

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

voorhouding

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


tail

Sranan Tongo: tere

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

cog

have the world by the tail on a downhill pull

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

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

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

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

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


perch

From Middle English perche, from Old French perche, from Latin pertica (“staff”, “long pole”, “measuring rod”).

der

(theater) A platform for lights to be directed at the stage.


bass

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

SATB

Initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass.

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

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


instrumentalness

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


leader

→ Catalan: líder

→ Czech: lídr

→ Galician: líder

→ Japanese: リーダー (rīdā)

→ Korean: 리더 (rideo)

→ Polish: lider

→ Portuguese: líder

→ Romanian: lider

→ Russian: ли́дер (líder)

→ Spanish: líder

→ Turkish: lider

→ Ukrainian: лі́дер (líder)

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

cog

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

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


box

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

shimshir

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

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

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

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


m

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

ng

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


nut

→ Japanese: ナット (natto)

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

dió

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

dióféle

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

walnuts, hazelnuts/peanuts, chestnuts, and related fruits

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

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

yläsatula

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


dry

en-verb

dry (third-person singular simple present dries, present participle drying, simple past and past participle dried)

dries (present singular third-person)
drying (participle present)
dried (participle past)
dried (past)
dry (infinitive)

[d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷaɪ̯]

Adjective and noun from Middle English drye, dryge, drüȝe, from Old English drȳġe (“dry; parched, withered”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgī, *draugī, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz, *draugiz (“dry, hard”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, support”). The verb derives from Middle English drien, from Old English drȳġan (“to dry”), from Proto-West Germanic *drūgijan, from Proto-Germanic *drūgiz (“hard, desiccated, dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“strong, hard, solid”).
cognates and related terms
 Cognate with Scots dry, drey (“dry”), North Frisian drüg, driig, Saterland Frisian druuch (“dry”), West Frisian droech (“dry”), Dutch droog (“dry”), Low German dröög (“dry”), German dröge (“dull”), Icelandic draugur (“a dry log”). Related also to German trocken (“dry”), West Frisian drege (“long-lasting”), Danish drøj (“tough”), Swedish dryg (“lasting, hard”), Icelandic drjúgur (“ample, long”), Latin firmus (“strong, firm, stable, durable”). See also drought, drain, dree.

乾

preceded by a character indicating the method

An actor never stumbled over his lines, he “fluffed”; he never forgot his dialogue, he “dried.”

1986, Richard Collier, Make-believe: The Magic of International Theatre, page 146

In one of the previews I dried (lost my lines) in my opening scene, 1.4, and had to improvise.

2006, Michael Dobson, Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today, page 126

Blinded to the astonishment of a thousand spectators by the force of the footlights, [Derek] Jacobi realised he'd dried. Dried completely. It wasn't like he'd forgotten the words. It was like he'd never known them.

2024 June 1, John Phipps, “The lamentable true history of the Red Hamlet”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 18

(intransitive, informal, theater) For an actor to forget their lines while performing.


drill

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

der

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


worship

en-noun

worship (usually uncountable, plural worships)

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

inh+

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


run

rise

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

rise

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

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

juoksu

point scored in baseball, cricket or similar games

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


a cappella

/ˌɑ kəˈpɛl.ə/

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

bor

(music) A vocal performance with no instrumental accompaniment.


a cappella

/ˌɑ kəˈpɛl.ə/

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

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

a cappella

performed by a choir with no instrumental accompaniment


a cappella

/ˌɑ kəˈpɛl.ə/

An a cappella group sang during the wedding reception.

(music) Singing solely or mainly without instrumental accompaniment.

清唱

singing solely or mainly without instrumental accompaniment

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

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

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


house

→ Belarusian: гаўс (haŭs)

→ Bulgarian: хаус (haus)

→ Catalan: house

→⇒ Chinese: 浩室音樂／浩室音乐 (hàoshì yīnyuè)

→ Czech: house

→ Danish: house

→ Dutch: house

→ Esperanto: haŭzo

→ Estonian: house

→ Finnish: house

→ French: house

→ Galician: house

→ Georgian: ჰაუსი (hausi)

→ German: House

→ Greek: χάουζ (cháouz)

→ Hungarian: house

→ Icelandic: house

→ Indonesian: house

→ Italian: house

→ Japanese: ハウス (hausu)

→ Korean: 하우스 (hauseu)

→ Latvian: hauss

→ Lithuanian: house

→ Lombard: house

→ Norwegian Bokmål: house

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: house

→ Occitan: house

→ Polish: house

→ Portuguese: house

→ Quechua: house

→ Romanian: house

→ Russian: ха́ус (xáus)

→ Serbo-Croatian: хауз, house

→ Slovak: house

→ Slovene: house

→ Spanish: house

→ Swedish: house

→ Turkish: house

→ Ukrainian: хауз (xauz)

→ Welsh: House

→ West Frisian: house

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


sharp

en-adj

sharp (comparative sharper, superlative sharpest)

sharper (comparative)
sharpest (superlative)

bland

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

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

better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick

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

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


sharp

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

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

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

liiga kõrgelt

in a higher pitch than is correct or desirable


sharp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


sharp

en-verb

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

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

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

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


stroke

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

isku

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

ход

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

خَطّ

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

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


c

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


burden

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

inh+

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

1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition

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


live

en-adj

live (comparative more live, superlative most live)

more live (comparative)
most live (superlative)

a live album

(entertainment, performing) Recorded from a performance in front of an audience.


instrumental

instrumental (comparative more instrumental, superlative most instrumental)

more instrumental (comparative)
most instrumental (superlative)

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

instrumental music

An instrumental part

Sweet voices mix'd with instrumental sounds.

c. 1700, John Dryden, Cymon and Iphigenia

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


instrumental

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

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


play

en-verb

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

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

desc

→ Kashubian: plejowac (Canada, United States)

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

gloss

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

gloss

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

cog

His latest film is playing in the local theatre tomorrow.

Some kind of lounge music was playing in the background.

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

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


key

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

шпи́лка

object used to maintain the orientation between two others

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the key of B-flat major

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

1881, R.L. Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque


hammer

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

sense

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

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


note

en-noun

note (countable and uncountable, plural notes)

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

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

но́та

character indicating the length and pitch of a tone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


stop

en-verb

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

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

continue

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

continue

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

→ Finnish: stop

→ French: stop

→ Greek: στοπ (stop)

→ Hungarian: stop

→ Irish: stop

→ Italian: stop

→ Latvian: stop

→ Ottoman Turkish: استوپ (istop)

→ Polish: stop

→ Portuguese: stop

→ Russian: стоп (stop)

→ Spanish: stop

→ Welsh: stopio

→ Tok Pisin: stap

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

megakadályoz

to cause to cease progressing, to prevent

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

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

tepışten

music: to regulate the sounds by shortening the vibrating part


stop

The organ is loudest when all the stops are pulled.

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

rekisteritappi

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

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


home

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

cog

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

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

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

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


pipe

→ Bengali: পাইপ (paip)

desc

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

→ Hindi: पाइप (pāip)

→ Japanese: パイプ (paipu)

→ Korean: 파이프 (paipeu)

→ Malay: paip

→ Maori: paipa

→ Russian: пайп (pajp)

→ Urak Lawoi': ปาเฮะ (pahëq)

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

onomatopoeic

imitative

inh

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

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

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

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

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

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


cycle

→ Japanese: サイクル (saikuru)

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

pyörä

bicycle, tricycle, motorcycle etc. — see also bicycle

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

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


drag

en-noun

drag (countable and uncountable, plural drags)

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

cog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


drag

en-verb

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

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

look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards

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


synthesizer

→ Hebrew: סינתיסייזר (síntesaizer)

سِنْثِسَيْزَر

music: an electronic instrument module without a keyboard

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

sintetizues

music: an electronic keyboard instrument

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


accentuation

en-noun

accentuation (countable and uncountable, plural accentuations)

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

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


sequence

en-verb

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

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

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

der

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


group

→ Gulf Arabic: قروب (grūp)

→ Japanese: グループ (gurūpu)

→ Korean: 그룹 (geurup)

→ Tongan: kulupu

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

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


edit

Back-formation from editor, influenced by French éditer (“edit, publish”) and Latin editus.

(comedy) An interruption or change to an improvised scene.


edit

en-verb

edit (third-person singular simple present edits, present participle editing, simple past and past participle edited)

edits (present singular third-person)
editing (participle present)
edited (participle past)
edited (past)
edit (infinitive)

A good rule of thumb is to edit a scene before you think, "Gosh, somebody should edit this scene."

2015, Matt Fotis, Siobhan O'Hara, The Comedy Improv Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to University Improvisational Comedy in Theatre and Performance, New York, NY: Focal Press, page 145

(comedy) To cut short or otherwise alter an improvised scene.


squelch

en-noun

squelch (countable and uncountable, plural squelches)

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

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

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

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


SW

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


spider

spider (countable and uncountable, plural spiders)

[ˈspʌɪ̯ɾə(ɹ)]

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

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


pitch

pitch (countable and uncountable, plural pitches)

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

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

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

Are we in baroque pitch for this one?

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

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

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


tres

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

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


dame

60th British Academy Film Awards
Judi Dench
Order of the British Empire

From Middle English dame, dam (“noble lady”), from Old French dame (“lady; term of address for a woman; the queen in card games and chess”), from Latin domina (“mistress of the house”), feminine form of dominus (“lord, master, ruler; owner of a residence”), or from Latin domus (“home, house”). Doublet of domina and donna.

der

[page 73, column 2] Mother Goose was produced on the 29th of December; Simmons playing the Old Dame; […] [page 74, column 1] Bugle condemns her to the ducking-stool, a sentence opposed by Colin, who espouses the cause of the Old Dame, who, escaping from her persecutors, puts an end to the wedding festivities by raising the ghost of the Squire's first wife.

1870 January 29, “English Pantomime. In Two Parts.—Part II.”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art, volume VII (Fourth Series), number 318, London, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, →OCLC, chapter X, pages 73 and 74

The Dame in a Panto is generally a large, gregarious and out-going man who plays the part of a large, gregarious and out-going woman. […] Every successful actor who plays the part of Dame in Panto knows that the secret of his success is that it should be obvious that it is a man playing a part, for this is not a Drag act; the intention is not to be as womanly as possible, but always to be 'a feller in a frock'. […] Oh how everyone loves the Panto Dame for she is Panto.

2013, Maureen Hughes, “Welcome to the Magical World of Pantomime”, in A History of Pantomime, Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword History, page 34

(British, theater) In traditional pantomime: a melodramatic female often played by a man in drag.


division

en-noun

division (countable and uncountable, plural divisions)

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

remainder left over if divisor does not divide dividend

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

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


ham

Uncertain, though it is generally agreed upon that it first appeared in print around the 1880s. At least four theories persist:
* It came naturally from the word amateur. Deemed likely by Hendrickson (1997), but then the question would be why it took so long to pop up. He rejects the folk etymology of Cockney slang hamateur because it originated in American English.
* From the play Hamlet, where the title character was often played poorly and/or in an exaggerated manner. Also deemed likely by Hendrickson, though he raises the issue that the term would have likely been around earlier if this were case.
* From the minstrel's practice of using ham fat to remove heavy black makeup used during performances.
* Shortened from hamfatter (“inferior actor”), said to derive from the 1863 minstrel show song The Ham-fat Man. William and Mary Morris (1988) argue that it's not known whether the song inspired the term or the term inspired the song, but that they believe the latter is the case.

Writing in The New Yorker in 2005, James Wood praised Mr. McCarthy as “a colossally gifted writer” and “one of the great hams of American prose, who delights in producing a histrionic rhetoric that brilliantly ventriloquizes the King James Bible, Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy, Melville, Conrad, and Faulkner.”

2023 June 13, Dwight Garner, quoting James Wood, “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

(acting) An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style.


ham

en-verb

ham (third-person singular simple present hams, present participle hamming, simple past and past participle hammed)

hams (present singular third-person)
hamming (participle present)
hammed (participle past)
hammed (past)

(acting) To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.


TV

en-noun

TV (countable and uncountable, plural TVs)

→ Thai: ทีวี (tii-wii)

→ Vietnamese: ti vi

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


genus

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

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

→ Malayalam: ജീനസ് (jīnasŭ)

→ Swahili: jenasi

→ Thai: สกุล (sà-gun) (semantic loan)

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

genus

rank in a taxonomic classification between family and species

en:type of tuning or intonation in music

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


WB

Warner Brothers
wikipedia:Warner Brothers

(entertainment) Initialism of Warner Brothers: U.S. motion picture producer, television producer, and recording company.


SM

Obtain contact information for the people you will be working with directly: director, production manager, stage manager (SM), soundboard operator (SO), and dance and fight choreographers. […] Early in the process is the time to ask the stage manager their preference for labeling music cues (numerically or alphabetically). The SM will have a system for calling cues: […].

2022 December 24, Richard Jennings, “Music for Plays, a Step-by-Step Guide”, in American Theatre


CC

en-noun

CC (countable and uncountable, plural CCs)

(music, MIDI) Initialism of control change.


metre

en-verb

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

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

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

der

(poetry, music) To put into metrical form.


accentor

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

bor

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


accelerando

en-noun

accelerando (plural accelerandos or accelerandoes)

accelerandos (plural)
accelerandoes (plural)

/æksɛləˈɹændəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian accelerando, from Latin accelero.

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


accelerando

/æksɛləˈɹændəʊ/

(music) With a gradual increase in speed.


idea

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

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

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

der

(music) A musical theme or melodic subject.


natural

en-adj

natural (comparative more natural, superlative most natural)

more natural (comparative)
most natural (superlative)

/ˈnæt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl/

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

luonnollinen

that exists and evolved within the confines of an ecosystem

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

(music) Neither sharp nor flat. Denoted ♮.

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


natural

/ˈnæt͡ʃ(ə)ɹəl/

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

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


ta

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

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


platinum

en-noun

platinum (countable and uncountable, plural platinums)

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

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

platinplade

recording that has achieved platinum sales


dord

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

bor+

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


li

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

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


line

→ Scottish Gaelic: loidhne

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

lyn

path through two or more points, threadlike mark

lyn

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

linja

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

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

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

regel

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

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

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

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


SO

symphony orchestra
symphony orchestra#English

(music) Initialism of symphony orchestra.


augmentation

en-noun

augmentation (countable and uncountable, plural augmentations)

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

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


accompanist

First attested in 1833. From accompany + -ist.

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

akkompagnatør

performer who takes the accompanying part


segue

en-verb

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

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

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

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

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


twee

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

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

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

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

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


funkadelic

en-adj

funkadelic (comparative more funkadelic, superlative most funkadelic)

more funkadelic (comparative)
most funkadelic (superlative)

/ˌfʌŋkəˈdɛlɪk/

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

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


simultaneity

en-noun

simultaneity (countable and uncountable, plural simultaneities)

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


generator

/ˈdʒɛnəɹeɪtə(ɹ)/

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

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

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

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


crook

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

der

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


wind instrument

en-noun

wind instrument (plural wind instruments)

Coordinate term: stringed instrument

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


produce

en-verb

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

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

/pɹəˈd͡ʒuːs/

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

highly produced sound

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


hook

sometimes in Northern England and Ireland, otherwise obsolete

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

The song's hook snared me.

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

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

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


scalar

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

coin

(music) Of or pertaining to a musical scale.


staff

en-noun

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

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

Token (railway signalling)#Staff and ticket

→ French: staff

→ Italian: staff

→ Japanese: スタッフ (sutaffu)

→ Korean: 스태프 (seutaepeu)

→ Malay: staf

desc

→ Portuguese: stafe, staff, estafe (Brazil)

→ Spanish: staff

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

inh

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

balk

music: horizontal lines on which notes are written


harp

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

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

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

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

Any instrument of the same musicological type.

(music, colloquial) Any musical instrument.

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


tangent

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

cog

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


ti

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

der

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


switch

→ Gulf Arabic: سويچ (swīč)

→ German: Switch

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

камута́тар

system allowing the interconnection of telephone lines


seventeenth

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