In music, played with deep feeling and emotion; a direction to performers to play tenderly and expressively.
From Italian 'affettuoso' (affectionate, tender), derived from 'affetto' (affection, feeling). Adopted directly into musical notation from Italian in the 17th century.
Italian was the language of music, so Italian words stuck: 'affettuoso,' 'pizzicato,' 'crescendo' are all Italian musical directions that English musicians just adopted wholesale rather than translating.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.