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sordino

[sawr-dee-noh; Italian sawr-dee-naw]
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noun, plural sor·di·ni [sawr-dee-nee Italian sawr-dee-nee] /sɔrˈdi ni Italian sɔrˈdi ni/. Music.
  1. mute(def 10).
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Origin of sordino

1795–1805; < Italian: a mute, equivalent to sordo (< Latin surdus deaf) + -ino -ine1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for sordino

damper, muffler, silencer, sordino, sourdine

Examples from the Web for sordino

Historical Examples of sordino

  • He was using a sordino and playing it very softly; but I was not mistaken.

    The Lost Stradivarius

    John Meade Falkner

  • A sordino, or boat-shaped pochette; English, seventeenth century.

  • A sordino, or pochette, by "Baptista Bressano," supposed to date from the end of the fifteenth century.

  • Another modification of tone is caused by placing a tiny instrument called a sordino, or mute, upon the bridge.

    How to Listen to Music, 7th ed.

    Henry Edward Krehbiel

British Dictionary definitions for sordino

sordino

noun plural -ni (-niː)
  1. a mute for a stringed or brass musical instrument
  2. any of the dampers that arrest the vibrations of piano strings
  3. con sordino or con sordini a musical direction to play with a mute
  4. senza sordino or senza sordini a musical direction to remove or play without the mute or (on the piano) with the sustaining pedal pressed down
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See also sourdine

Word Origin for sordino

Italian: from sordo deaf, from Latin surdus
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