A musical direction meaning to perform with sorrow, melancholy, or a mournful expressive quality.
From Italian dolente, meaning 'sorrowful' or 'grieving,' derived from Latin dolent-. It entered English musical vocabulary through Italian musical terminology in the 17th-18th centuries.
Musicians have borrowed entire emotional vocabularies from Italian—'dolente,' 'vibrato,' 'legato'—because Italian composers were so dominant that their words became the international language of classical music, a linguistic colonization that still rules concert halls today.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.