Etymology

crescendo

cres·cen·do
C3R1E1S1C3E1N1D2O1

Today it means: An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left ( < ), by musicians called a hairpin. Full definition →

Italian crescendo
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Italian · borrowed fromcrescendo
  2. English todaycrescendo

Borrowed from Italian crescendo, gerund of crescere (“to grow, to increase”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.