Where does “falsetto” come from?
Falsetto comes from Italian falsetto, the diminutive of Italian falso, from Latin falsus, the past participle of Latin fallo meaning to deceive or fail.
falsetto (English): The "false" voice in any human, usually airy and...
Definitions
- The "false" voice in any human, usually airy and...
Ancestry of “falsetto”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italian | falsetto | falsetto (voice) |
| 2 | Italian | falso | false; sham; forgery |
| 3 | Polish | fałszywy | false |
| 4 | Polish | fałsz | deceitfulness, phoniness; falsehood, falsity |
| 5 | Middle High German | valsch | — |
| 6 | Latin | falsus | deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed, having... |
| 7 | Latin | fallō | to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude, ensnare, disappoint |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵʰwel- | to bend; to lie, deceive |