pizzicato

[ pit-si-kah-toh; Italian peet-tsee-kah-taw ]

/ ˌpɪt sɪˈkɑ toʊ; Italian ˌpit tsiˈkɑ tɔ /

Music.

played by plucking the strings with the finger instead of using the bow, as on a violin.

a note or passage so played.

Origin of pizzicato

1835–45; < Italian, past participle of pizzicare to pluck, pick, twang (a stringed instrument)

Con sordino and pizzicato passages occur as often for the cello as for the violin.

Music Notation and Terminology |Karl W. Gehrkens
Above the distant roll of the artillery, one gun stood out like a pizzicato note on a giant bass violin.

The Blower of Bubbles |Arthur Beverley Baxter
The pizzicato tuning of a violin is heard through the window.

Stars of the Opera |Mabel Wagnalls
He invented the tremolo and the pizzicato, and originated the vocal duet.

For Every Music Lover |Aubertine Woodward Moore

It was the music of piano and the pizzicato plucking of strings—there was no pompous organ note, no ore rotundo any more.

The Drunkard |Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

pizzicato

/ (ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːtəʊ) music /

(in music for the violin family) to be plucked with the finger

the style or technique of playing a normally bowed stringed instrument in this manner

C19: from Italian: pinched, from pizzicare to twist, twang