fa
/fɑ/ noun
Also a form of for
Forms fas fah
- noun (music) A syllable used in solfège to represent the fourth diatonic (or sixth chromatic) note of a major scale.
- noun (shapenote) Sometimes syllable for both the tonic and the fourth.
Etymology
From Glover's solmization, from Middle English fa (“fourth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian fa in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin famulī (“servants”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [It.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fa”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details