1835–45; < Italian, alteration of coboletta stanza, diminutive of cob(b)ola, cobla stanza, couplet < Old Provençal cobla < Latin cōpula bond; see copula
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
00:10
00:09
00:08
00:07
00:06
00:05
00:04
00:03
00:02
00:01
| a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
cabaletta
(from Italian cobola, "couplet"), originally an operatic aria with a simple, animated rhythm, and later a fast concluding section of a two-part operatic aria. An example of the earlier type is Le belle immagini ("The Beautiful Images") in Christoph Gluck's Paride ed Elena (1770). In 19th-century Italian opera, cabaletta may mean either a short aria in quick tempo with repeated sections (examples occur in the operas of Gioachino Rossini) or a brilliant conclusion to the ubiquitous two-part aria of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Giuseppe Verdi-e.g., Violetta's Sempre libera ("Always Free") in Verdi's La traviata, the second part of Ah, forse e lui che l'anima. The cabaletta was famously revived in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (1951): Anne's cabaletta I go, I go to him (second part of Quietly, night)
Learn more about cabaletta with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Cite This Source
