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   Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 11:25:14 JST Alex Gleason
   Apparently the word "cello" (like the giant violin) means "little" in Italian. But the original name is "violoncello" meaning "little big violin". And weirdly in today's language we've dropped the "big" part and now one of the largest instruments around is known as little.
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     Antiquixotic (antiquixotic@spinster.xyz)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 11:52:47 JST Antiquixotic

     in reply to
     @alex “-cello” is a diminutive suffix in Italian, so you couldn’t use it in its own for “little.” And, “-one” is an augmentative suffix. So “violone” would mean large violin, then “ello” is added to make it a little smaller: violoncello.
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     Doughnut Lollipop 【記録係】:blobfoxgooglymlem: (tk@bbs.kawa-kun.com)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 11:52:59 JST Doughnut Lollipop 【記録係】:blobfoxgooglymlem:

     in reply to
     @alex Who remembers the viol?
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     jeremy (jeremy@social.jjohnson.org)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 21:40:45 JST jeremy

     in reply to
     @alex this is similar to the piano. Originally called the pianoforte. In Italian piano means soft and forte means loud. It got the name because the piano has a far greater dynamic range than it’s predecessor harpsichords. The forte got dropped along the way.
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