ossia
Americanconjunction
Etymology
Origin of ossia
First recorded in 1875–80, ossia is from Italian o sia “or let it be”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The company is performing dozens of different titles, including Meyerbeer’s “Les Huguenots”; a staging of two unfinished Mozart operas, “L’Oca del Cairo, ossia lo Sposo Deluso”; and plenty of war horses.
From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2018
The full title of the work is "Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni," and the subject was taken from a Spanish tale by Tirso de Molina, called "El combidado de piedra."
From The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
The history of the Borgias was taken up again by Domenico Cerri in his work, Borgia ossia Alessandro VI, Papa e suoi contemporanei, Turin, 1858.
From Lucretia Borgia According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day by Ferdinand Gregorovius
Its original title was "Almaviva, ossia l'inutile precauzione," to distinguish it from Paisiello's "Barber of Seville."
From The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers by George P. (George Putnam) Upton
Notwithstanding the Latin title, the work itself is wholly in Italian and both in the MSS. and in later printed editions is found also under the title Deifira ossia del mal principiato amore.
From Catalogue of the William Loring Andrews Collection of Early Books in the Library of Yale University by Addison Van Name
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
