Where does “ostinato” come from?
Ostinato comes from Italian ostinato, from Latin obstinatus meaning stubborn or resolved, from obstino meaning to persist, from ob meaning against combined with a root from Proto-Indo-European h₁epi and h₁eps.
ostinato (English): A piece of melody, a chord progression, or a bass...
Definitions
- A piece of melody, a chord progression, or a bass...
Ancestry of “ostinato”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italian | ostinato | stubborn, obstinate; a stubborn or obstinate... |
| 2 | Latin | obstinātus | Firmly set, fixed, resolved |
| 3 | Latin | obstinō | to resolve, determine, be firmly resolved, persist |
| 4 | Latin | ob- | towards; against |
| 5 | Latin | obolus | obolus (Greek coin) |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | ὀβολός | obol, obolus, used at Athens as both a weight and... |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | ὀβελός | a spit, rod; a horizontal line |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | βέλος | missile, arrow, dart; weapon; something quickly... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷélHos | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷelH- | to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing |