Science, ideas & the arts

piano

Cristofori's new keyboard of about 1700 could play both soft and loud, so Italians called it the pianoforte, 'soft-loud'; English clipped it to piano. The instrument and its Italian name went round the world, from Russian fortepiano to Japanese piano.

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The road to English

From Italian to French

From Italian to Russian

From Italian to German

From Italian to Spanish

From Italian to Portuguese

From Italian to Turkish

From English to Japanese

From English to Korean

From English to Arabic

200 BCELatin

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

The road to English

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