Etymology

sinfonietta

S1I1N1F4O1N1I1E1T1T1A1

Today it means: A small-scale symphony (either in length or size of orchestra needed). Full definition →

Italian sinfonietta ← French symphoniette
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The story

  1. French · derived fromsymphoniette
  2. Italian · borrowed fromsinfonietta
  3. English todaysinfonietta

Either: * from Italian sinfonietta; * formed on the Italian roots sinfonia (“symphony”) + -etta (feminine diminutive suffix), either in English or in German (as Sinfonietta) and adopted thence; or, * an alteration of the French symphoniette to resemble an Italian construction of the form sinfonia + -etta. Compare the French–Italian hybrid symphonietta.

Words from the same roots

Frenchsymphoniette all →

symphoniette

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.