La

Part of speech: noun, interjection

Definitions

1. The sixth note of the diatonic scale in solfège, sung to a syllable of that name ; a meaningless filler sound or dismissive exclamation used in singing or speech
2. The sixth tone of the major scale in sol-fa notation ; a nonsense syllable used as filler in singing or an airy, dismissive interjection in conversation
3. A pitch sung as the sixth degree of the scale in solmization ; an empty filler sound or a breezy brush-off exclamation heard in speech and song

Etymology: Most people know "la" as the sixth note of the major scale, and it began as a memory aid in a Latin hymn. Paulus Deacon's "Ut queant laxis" has six lines, each beginning on a higher step of the scale. Guido of Arezzo used the first syllable of each line to name those steps, and the sixth line, "Labii reatum," gave the note its name. As an interjection, it is a sound used to build meaningless song refrains, an imitative syllable like babbling. It shares this babble-like quality with several older words, including Old English "lā," a common exclamation, and German "lallen," meaning "to babble." Its sense is simply the sound itself, with no meaning beyond the tune it carries.

Synonyms: lo, behold