Pizz

Part of speech: adverb, adjective

Definitions

1. Short for pizzicato, a musical instruction telling string players to pluck the strings with a finger rather than bow them
2. An abbreviated musical marking directing a violinist or cellist to pluck the string instead of drawing the bow across it
3. A performance direction in sheet music, shorthand for plucking a stringed instrument's strings with the fingers

Etymology: "Pizz" is the everyday shorthand for "pizzicato," the Italian musical instruction telling string players to pluck the strings with a finger instead of drawing the bow across them. The Italian word is the past participle of "pizzicare," meaning "to pinch" or "to pluck," and it is related to "pizzo," a point or tip, which suggests the sharp, pinching motion involved. The abbreviation appears in printed scores as a marking that ends when the player returns to the bow, usually written as "arco." Composers from the eighteenth century onward used the term, and the plucked sound it calls for has become so familiar that orchestral players often treat "pizz" as a simple instruction rather than a foreign word.