Etymology and origin of the English word forte
forte1 strong point
Etymology tree of forte1
From the same root · forte1
Etymology
The word for a strong point is borrowed from French fort, the noun use of the adjective meaning "strong",[2][3][4] which Barnhart and Merriam-Webster give as Middle French;[5][4] it first meant the strong part of a sword blade, and earlier a fort or fortress.[6] The adjective is from Latin fortis (“strong”).[7][8][9] The English word was at first spelled fort.[5][6][4] According to the OED, Hoad and the Shorter Oxford the final -e reflects the French feminine form forte,[2][10][3] as in locale and morale;[3][11] Barnhart and Etymonline say it was added in the 18th century in imitation of Italian forte (“strong”).[5][6]
Earliest recorded meaning
In fencing, the strongest part of a sword blade, between the hilt and the middle: before 1648, in Lord Herbert's Life.[2][5][4]
Semantic evolution
Weekley notes that the word began in fencing, where fort was the upper half of the blade, and quotes La Bruyère's le fort et le foible for people's strong and weak points.[12] The sense "a person's strong point, that in which one excels" is recorded from 1682, in Shadwell,[2][5][6] and the fencing sense was also used figuratively from about 1772.[2]
Timeline
- before 1648 – in fencing, the strong part of a sword blade.[2][5]
- 1682 – a person's strong point.[2][5]
- c. 1772 – the fencing sense in figurative use.[2]
- 18th century – the spelling forte.[6][5]
Meanings
Noun
forte2 loud, loudly
Etymology tree of forte2
From the same root · forte2
Etymology
The musical term is borrowed from Italian forte (“strong, loud”),[2][3][4] an adverb meaning strongly or loudly from the adjective,[4] which is from Latin fortis (“strong”).[2][4][3][11] It is the opposite of piano.[6][4]
Earliest recorded meaning
A direction in music for a strong, loud tone: 1724, in a Short Explication of Foreign Words used in music books.[2][5][4]
Semantic evolution
The doubled forte forte means very loud, and the abbreviations are f and ff.[2][3] As a noun, a loud tone or passage, the word is dated by Merriam-Webster from 1759[4] and by the OED from 1760, in Sterne's Tristram Shandy; it was also the name of a device on the harmonium for playing loudly.[2] Its superlative fortissimo was borrowed in the 18th century.[10]
Timeline
- 1724 – a direction in music, loud or loudly.[2][5][4]
- 1759 – noun, a loud tone or passage.[4] The OED's first record is from 1760.[2]
Meanings
Adverb
Adjective
Noun
Word family
- fortissimo
- mezzo forte
- fortepiano
Related words
Usage notes
For the strong-point sense, the older pronunciation has one syllable, like fort, since the word comes from French fort; a two-syllable pronunciation like that of the musical term spread through confusion with it, and both are now standard.[13][14] Merriam-Webster notes that usage writers have criticized the two-syllable forms as Italian-influenced, but that their one-syllable form does not follow French either, where le fort rhymes with English for.[15] The Cambridge pronouncing dictionary gives /ˈfɔː.teɪ/ first for both words in British English, but /fɔːrt/ first for the strong point in American English.[16]
References
- ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
- ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
- ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
- ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Forte knocks", 15 May 2008
- ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Forte.” Etymologically, 1 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/forte. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.
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