Etymograph

English

grace note

Grace note comes from English grace ‘elegant movement’.

  1. English1500–presentgrace‘elegant movement’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1821grace note

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. English1500–presentgrace‘elegant movement’
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1821grace note

Earliest quotation: 1821, James Chapman, The Art of Reading and Speaking: “There is a manner of gracing the notes or…”

A compound of grace ‘elegant movement’ + note

Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- ‘to praise’

…

Latin grātus ‘pleasing’

Latin grātia ‘kindness’

Old French grace ‘grace’

Middle English grace ‘the grace of God’

English grace

Latin nota ‘mark’

Old English not ‘note’

Middle English note

English note

Every English word from English grace

Today it means

noun A musical note, indicated on a score in smaller type with or without a slash through it, played to ornament the melody rather than as part of it. Its note value does not count as part of the total time value of the measure it appears in.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / English grace / grace note

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