música

Forms

música f (plural músicas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mūsica (“music”), a learned borrowing, from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), short for μουσικὴ τέχνη (mousikḕ tékhnē, “the art of the Muses”).^[2][1][3][4] The Greek adjective μουσικός (mousikós, “of the Muses”) is formed from μοῦσα (moûsa, “Muse”).^[1][3] In Greek and Latin the word covered every art over which the Muses presided, poetry sung to music above all, and more broadly letters and learning.^[5][6]

The same learned word is Portuguese música, recorded from the 14th century.^[7] Corominas derives murga, a band of out-of-tune street musicians, from a semi-popular form of the same word.^[8][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the Setenario of Alfonso X, about 1250; the word then appears in Alfonso de Palencia and in Nebrija.^[2][8] The Alfonsine prose uses it for the art of composing or producing an ordered sequence of sounds pleasing to the ear.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the Quijote the word already means both the art and a performance of it, as in the night serenades that kept the household awake, and Sancho's maxim „donde ay musica, no puede auer cosa mala” “where there is music there can be nothing bad”.^[10] Salvá in 1846 defined it as the science of harmonious sounds, and also gave a concert, a company of musicians, a composition, the collection of sheet music, and, by antiphrasis, a disagreeable noise.^[11] The Academy's 1869 edition added the definition as the art of combining sounds so that hearing them gives pleasure and moves the feelings, and the phrase música celestial for fine words without substance.^[12] Moliner adds the ironic “unpleasant noise” and the plural músicas “tiresome talk”.^[13]

The slang of Bolivia and Spain uses música for a wallet.^[14][15] The word was borrowed into Basque and Tagalog as musika.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Setenario, the first record.^[2][8]
• 1583 – the first records from the Americas, in the Río de la Plata and Guatemala.^[16]
• 1843 – the Academy records the proverb para música vamos, dijo la zorra.^[17]
• 1846 – Salvá records the antiphrastic sense “disagreeable noise”.^[11]
• 1869 – the Academy defines it as the art of combining sounds.^[12]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin musica.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. music: the art of combining the sounds of voices or instruments so as to give pleasure or move the feelings.^[19][13][1]
2. melody, rhythm and harmony combined; an ordered sequence of sounds pleasing to the ear.^[19][13]
3. A concert of instruments or voices.^[19]
4. A band or company of musicians who play or sing together.^[19][13]
5. A musical composition: Escribió la música de la película.^[19]
6. sheet music: the collection of papers on which compositions are written.^[19][13]
7. A pleasant sound made by something: la música de la lluvia.^[19][13]
8. (countable) A song, a piece of music.^[1]
9. (ironic) An unpleasant noise.^[13]
10. (plural, colloquial) Tiresome talk, nonsense: No me vengas con músicas.^[13]
11. (Bolivia, criminal slang) A small wallet for banknotes.^[14]

Word family

• musicar
• musical
• musiquero

Related words

• musa
• músico
• murga
• Latin mūsica
• Portuguese música

Usage notes

Set phrases include música de cámara “chamber music”, música celestial “empty words” and irse con la música a otra parte “to take one's nuisance elsewhere”.^[13][1] Música is also the feminine of músico, “a woman musician”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 194
3. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 480
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. música
5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2309
8. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. músico
9. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. música
10. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 778
11. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 741
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 529
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. música
14. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. música
15. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. música
16. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. música
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 492
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 683
19. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. música