Staccato
/stəˈkɑːtoʊ/noun
A style of playing or singing in short, sharply separated notes or sounds.
Did you know?Staccato comes from Italian *staccare*, “to detach,” and its older Germanic root is related to the same family that gave English *stick* and *stock* — the idea is literally “cut off, separate.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*stakkōną / *stakjaną
“to thrust, stick, or thrust out”
Old High German
OHG
stecchen
“to stick, thrust”
Old French
OF
estachier / estacher
“to fasten, attach; later influence in Romance forms of “detach””
Italian
It
staccare
“to detach, separate, break off”
17th Century
It
staccato
“detached; in music, notes played separately”
Modern English
English
staccato
“short, sharply separated musical notes or sounds”