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acciaccatura

[uh-chah-kuh-too r-uh; Italian aht-chahk-kah-too-rah]
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noun, plural ac·ciac·ca·tu·ras, ac·ciac·ca·tu·re [-too r-ey, -too r-ee; Italian -too-re] /-ˈtʊər eɪ, -ˈtʊər i; Italian -ˈtu rɛ/. Music.
  1. a short grace note one half step below, and struck at the same time as, a principal note.
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Origin of acciaccatura

1875–80; < Italian: literally, a pounding, crushing, equivalent to acciacc(are) to crush, bruise (based on an echoic root ciacc-) + -atura (see -ate1, -ure)
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for acciaccatura

Historical Examples

  • The acciaccatura (or short appoggiatura) is written like the appoggiatura except that it has a light stroke across its stem.

    Music Notation and Terminology

    Karl W. Gehrkens

  • The appoggiatura is always accented, but the acciaccatura never is, the stress always falling on the melody tone.

  • In the second half of the first bar, the acciaccatura was never intended by the composer to be actually sung as printed.

    Style in Singing

    W. E. Haslam

British Dictionary definitions for acciaccatura

acciaccatura

noun plural -ras or -re (-reɪ, -riː)
  1. a small grace note melodically adjacent to a principal note and played simultaneously with or immediately before it
  2. (in modern music) a very short appoggiatura
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Word Origin

C18: Italian: literally, a crushing sound
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012