Etymology

fa

F4A1

Today it means: A syllable used in solfège to represent the fourth diatonic (or sixth chromatic) note of a major scale. Full definition →

Middle English fa ← Italian fa ← Latin famulī
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromfamulī“servants”
  2. Italian · derived fromfa
  3. Middle English · inherited fromfa“fourth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”
  4. English todayfa

From Glover's solmization, from Middle English fa (“fourth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian fa in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin famulī (“servants”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.