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Webster 1913 Edition
Staccato
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1.
(Mus.)
Disconnected; separated; distinct; – a direction to perform the notes of a passage in a short, distinct, and pointed manner. It is opposed to
legato
, and often indicated by heavy accents written over or under the notes, or by dots when the performance is to be less distinct and emphatic. 2.
Expressed in a brief, pointed manner.
Staccato
and peremptory [literary criticism]. G. Eliot.