different between crotchet vs caprice

English

Etymology

From Old French crochet (“small hook”), from croc + -et (diminutive suffix), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”). The musical note was named so because of a small hook on its stem in black notation (in modern notation this hook is on the quaver/eighth note).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??t?.?t/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??t?.?t/

Noun

crotchet (plural crotchets)

1. (music) A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
2. (obsolete) A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
3. (archaic) A whim or a fancy.
   • 1847, Thomas De Quincey, Secret Societies (published in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine):

     He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man.

4. A forked support; a crotch.
5. (military, historical) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
6. (military) The arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle.
7. (printing) A square bracket.

Synonyms

• (musical note): quarter note (US)

Derived terms

• crotchety

Translations

Verb

crotchet (third-person singular simple present crotchets, present participle crotcheting, simple past and past participle crotcheted)

1. (obsolete) to play music in measured time

   • The nimblest crotcheting musician

2. Archaic form of crochet (knit by looping)

Norman

Etymology

From Old French crochet (“small hook”), from croc (with diminutive suffix -et), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”).

Noun

crotchet m (plural crotchets)

1. (Jersey, punctuation) bracket

Derived terms

• crotchet cârré (“square bracket”)

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French caprice, from Italian capriccio, from caporiccio (“fright, sudden start”): capo (“head”), from Latin caput + riccio (“curly”), from Latin ?ricius (“hedgehog”), or from Italian capro (“goat”). Doublet of capriccio.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /k??p?is/

Noun

caprice (plural caprices)

1. An impulsive, seemingly unmotivated action, change of mind, or notion; a whim.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. A brief romance
   • Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

     The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that a caprice lasts a little longer.

3. An unpredictable or sudden condition, change, or series of changes.
   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness, chapter 6:

     After that we cast off all allegiance to immediate, tangible, and time-touched things, and entered a fantastic world of hushed unreality in which the narrow, ribbon-like road rose and fell and curved with an almost sentient and purposeful caprice amidst the tenantless green peaks and half-deserted valleys

4. A disposition to be impulsive.
5. (music) A capriccio.

Related terms

• capricious

Translations

French

Etymology

From Italian capriccio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.p?is/

Noun

caprice m (plural caprices)

1. whim; wish

   Synonym: lubie
2. tantrum

Derived terms

• capricieux

Descendants

• ? Danish: kaprice
• ? English: caprice
• ? Romanian: capriciu

Further reading

• “caprice” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).