Accelerando
/ækˌsɛləˈrændoʊ/noun
A musical term meaning to gradually increase speed.
Did you know?Accelerando is an Italian musical instruction built from Latin roots meaning “to hasten,” and it survives as a real-time command in performance, not just a descriptive word.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*ḱel-
“to be swift, move fast”
Latin
Latin
celer
“swift, quick”
Latin
Latin
accelerāre
“to hasten, speed up”
Italian
Italian
accelerando
“increasing in speed; getting faster”
18th-19th Century
English
accelerando
“a direction in music to gradually increase speed”
Modern English
English
accelerando
“a musical instruction to gradually quicken the tempo”