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.

mute(def 10).

RELATED WORDS

damper, muffler, silencer, sourdine

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. 2019

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.
Musical Myths and Facts, Volume I (of 2)
Carl Engel
A sordino, or pochette, by "Baptista Bressano," supposed to date from the end of the fifteenth century.
Musical Myths and Facts, Volume I (of 2)
Carl Engel
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)

a mute for a stringed or brass musical instrument

any of the dampers that arrest the vibrations of piano strings

con sordino or con sordini a musical direction to play with a mute

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

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