cantilena

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English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian or Latin cantilēna.

Pronunciation

Noun

cantilena (plural cantilenas)

  1. (music) A vocal melody or instrumental passage in a smooth, lyrical style.
    • 1964, Anthony Burgess, The Eve of St Venus:
      He played a lazy tune that sinuated from C sharp down to G natural and back again. Astonishing that he could flute so lazy a cantilena while chasing nymphs.
    • 1982, Gene Wolfe, chapter 27, in The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun; 3), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, pages 203-204:
      The sounds of insects, of which I am seldom conscious unless I have not heard them in some time, resumed, with a noise that reminded me of the tuning of the strings in the Blue Hall before the first cantilena began, a noise I sometimes used to listen to when I lay on my pallet near the open port of the apprentices' dormitory.

Anagrams

Finnish

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian cantilena.

Pronunciation

Noun

cantilena

  1. cantilena

Declension

Inflection of cantilena (Kotus type 13/katiska, no gradation)
nominative cantilena cantilenat
genitive cantilenan cantilenoiden
cantilenoitten
cantilenojen
partitive cantilenaa cantilenoita
cantilenoja
illative cantilenaan cantilenoihin
singular plural
nominative cantilena cantilenat
accusative nom. cantilena cantilenat
gen. cantilenan
genitive cantilenan cantilenoiden
cantilenoitten
cantilenojen
cantilenain rare
partitive cantilenaa cantilenoita
cantilenoja
inessive cantilenassa cantilenoissa
elative cantilenasta cantilenoista
illative cantilenaan cantilenoihin
adessive cantilenalla cantilenoilla
ablative cantilenalta cantilenoilta
allative cantilenalle cantilenoille
essive cantilenana cantilenoina
translative cantilenaksi cantilenoiksi
abessive cantilenatta cantilenoitta
instructive cantilenoin
comitative See the possessive forms below.
Possessive forms of cantilena (Kotus type 13/katiska, no gradation)

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kan.tiˈlɛ.na/
  • Rhymes: -ɛna
  • Hyphenation: can‧ti‧lè‧na

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin cantilēna.

Noun

cantilena f (plural cantilene)

  1. lullaby
    Synonym: filastrocca
  2. singsong
  3. whining, cant
Derived terms

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

cantilena

  1. inflection of cantilenare:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology

From *cantilō +‎ -ēla, the attested cantilō, cantillō being back-formed.

Pronunciation

Noun

cantilēna f (genitive cantilēnae); first declension

  1. old song
  2. oft-repeated saying
  3. gossip

Declension

First-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative cantilēna cantilēnae
genitive cantilēnae cantilēnārum
dative cantilēnae cantilēnīs
accusative cantilēnam cantilēnās
ablative cantilēnā cantilēnīs
vocative cantilēna cantilēnae

Descendants

References

  • cantilena”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • cantilena”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • cantilena in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • cantilena in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Breyer, Gertrud (1993) Etruskisches Sprachgut im Lateinischen unter Ausschluß des spezifisch onomastischen Bereiches (Orientalia Analecta Lovaniensia; 53), Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oriëntalistiek, →ISBN, page 55

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /kɐ̃.t͡ʃiˈlẽ.nɐ/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /kɐ̃.t͡ʃiˈle.na/

Noun

cantilena f (plural cantilenas)

  1. (Portugal) Synonym of parlenda

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cantilēna.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kantiˈlena/
  • Rhymes: -ena
  • Syllabification: can‧ti‧le‧na

Noun

cantilena f (plural cantilenas)

  1. cantilena

Further reading