Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A chiefly 18th-century form of instrumental chamber music having several short movements. Also called divertissement.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In music: A dance interpolated in an opera; an entr'acte.
- n. A piece of chamber music, made up of several movements rather loosely combined; a suite or sonata (in the older sense).
- n. A potpourri or fantasia.
- n. A free episode in a fugue.
Wiktionary
- n. In music, a composition that has many short movements, a style that composers started to use in the Eighteenth Century.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mus.) A light and pleasing composition.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a musical composition in several movements; has no fixed form
Etymologies
- Italian, from divertire, to divert, from Old French divertir; see divert. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I have begun various cassations [a kind of divertimento], so I have thus responded to your desire.”
“For example, a piece from modernist composer Charles Ives is linked with a tall wooden chair designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a tea table with a Mozart string "divertimento" (the very music upper-class, early 19th-century diners might have been listening to), and a soothing section of Brahms 'second symphony with a comfortable-looking easy chair.”
“Dignita, dovere e divertimento, I like to say: dignity, duty and fun.”
“Los videojuegos están presentes en nuestras vidas para el divertimento, al igual que la TV, y los juegos de ordenador.”
“Ah, the divertimento in E, a rhapsody on a theme by Epsilon Oh she's from Singapore!”
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“KUHN: North Korea watchers say that this symphonic diplomacy could be a distraction, or should we say a divertimento, from the more pressing issue of nuclear disarmament.”
“February 29, 2008 at 11:09 am divertimento fur D no time fur teh rest. moosickle peepls, halp!”
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“February 29, 2008 at 11:10 am divertimento etude fanfare”
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“EepyBird Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, che hanno dato il via alla follia di Mentos e Diet Coke, torna con una nuova e colorata esplosione di divertimento.”
“For his next “wheel of life” divertimento, he chooses Anni Joan Crawford, a struggling cabaret singer in Trieste.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘divertimento’.
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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...another list...
I've no idea where I got this page full of words, but whatever it is, I want to find it again. May have duplicate words from other lists.
bicameral, aphelion, dirigible, parhelion, flocculus, vernier, corticate, oxalis, pandanus, calabash, plumbago, jonquil and 217 more...
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Beautiful Music
a cappella, accelerando, accompagnato, adagio, ad libitum, agitato, aleatory, alla breve, allegro, allemande, alto, andante and 548 more...
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the musician
Started off as names of musical pieces and miscellaneous music terms, now broadened to dance and theatre. (May recategorize this to finer details.)
oratorio, berceuse, barcarolle, appoggiatura, acciaccatura, polonaise, mazurka, overture, canto, arabesque, sinfonia, sonata and 44 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for divertimento.
chained_bear "'Still,' said Jack, 'I am sure the Doctor's divertimento in C major will ...' He almost said 'divert our minds' but in fact ended with 'prove a compensation.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 262 Mar 8, 2008