Etymology

leitmotif

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Today it means: A melodic theme associated with a particular character, place, thing or idea in an opera. Full definition →

German Leitmotiv
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The story

  1. German · borrowed fromLeitmotiv“leading motif”
  2. English todayleitmotif

From German Leitmotiv (“leading motif”), from leiten (“to lead”) + Motiv (“motif”), originally used to describe Wagnerian opera. The spelling was influenced by motif.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.