staccato

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Made up of short, sharp, separated sounds or parts.

   He answered in staccato bursts, each word clipped and abrupt.

2. 2
   adv

   In a way that keeps each note short and separate.

   The pianist played the passage staccato, crisp and detached.

3. 3
   noun

   A way of playing music in which each note is short and clearly separated.

   The lively melody was full of staccato.

Borrowed from Italian staccato (“detached, disconnected”), past participle of staccare (“to detach, separate”), aphetic variant of distaccare (“to separate, detach”), from Middle French destacher (“to detach”), from Old French destachier (“to detach”), from des- + atachier (“to attach”), alteration of estachier (“to fasten with or to a stake, lay claim to”), from estache (“a stake”), from Low Frankish *stakkā (“stake”), from Proto-Germanic *stakkaz, *stakô (“stick, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“stick, stake”). Akin to Old High German stecko (“post”) (German Stecken (“stick”)), O…

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