"piano" in seven languages
Meaningpiano
Spanish
/ˈpjano/
masc.borrowed · Italian piano(forte)
French
/pjano/
masc.borrowed · Italian piano(forte)
Italian
/pjanoˈfɔrte/
masc.inherited
Also just piano; piano alone also means 'softly, slowly'.
Portuguese
/ˈpjɐnu/
masc.borrowed · Italian piano(forte)
Romanian
/piˈan/
neut.borrowed · French piano and Italian piano(forte)
Catalan
/piˈanu/
masc.borrowed · Italian piano(forte)
English
/piˈænoʊ/
from Latin/French · Italian piano(forte)
The Latin ancestor
PLĀNUM‘flat, level (Italian piano 'soft')’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
The instrument was a harpsichord 'col piano e forte', able to play soft and loud. Italian piano 'soft' is PLĀNUM with the usual pi- for pl-: the same word as Spanish llano and French plain 'flat'.
English relatives: plain, plane, explain
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esToca el piano.
- frElle joue du piano.
- itSuona il pianoforte.
- ptEla toca piano.
- roCântă la pian.
- caToca el piano.
- enShe plays the piano.