Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| a white, crystalline, water-insoluble solid, C14H9Cl5, usually derived from chloral by reaction with chlorobenzene in the presence of fuming sulfuric acid: used as an insecticide and as a scabicide and pediculicide: agricultural use prohibited in the U.S. |
| (used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.) |
| appoggiatura (əˌpɒdʒəˈtʊərə) | |
| —n , pl -ras, -re | |
| music See also acciaccatura an ornament consisting of a nonharmonic note (short or long) preceding a harmonic one either before or on the stress | |
| [C18: from Italian, literally: a propping, from appoggiare to prop, support] | |
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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appoggiatura
(from Italian appoggiare, "to lean"), in music, an ornamental note of long or short duration that temporarily displaces, and subsequently resolves into, a main note, usually by stepwise motion. During the Renaissance and early Baroque, the appoggiatura was of moderate length, averaging one-third of the main note, and was more in the nature of a melodic than a harmonic ornament. By the time of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), appoggiaturas were divided into two species: the short, which borrows an inconsiderable length from its main note and therefore has little effect on the harmony; and the long, which takes half or more of the length of its main note and therefore substantially affects the harmony, creating a dissonance that then resolves, on the main note, to a consonance. Because its purpose was mainly expressive, whether in purely melodic or harmonic terms, the typical appoggiatura in 17th- and 18th-century music occurred on the beat, rather than before it, "leaning" on the principal note, as suggested by the term's derivation
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