Staccato means played in short detached notes. Play it staccato, a staccato passage, staccato bursts.
Each note is cut short so a silence falls between them, which is the exact opposite of legato. It is marked with a dot above or below the note. Figuratively, staccato speech is clipped and abrupt. Note that the Italian means detached, from a verb meaning to separate — the same root as detach.
1adjectivestaccatoPlayed in short detached notes.
“The trumpets played a sharp, staccato rhythm under the melody.”
staccato is a musical direction.
Italian staccato means detached, from staccare, to detach, from a French verb. Detach and attach come from the same fastening.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)teg- — stick, stake
Proto-Germanic
*stakkaz
Frankish
*stakkā — stake
Old French
destachier — to detach
Middle French
destacher — to detach
Italian
staccato — detached, disconnected
English, today
staccato
Built from
Borrowed from Italian staccato (“detached, disconnected”), past participle of staccare (“to detach, separate”), aphetic variant of distaccare (“to separate, detach”), from Middle French destacher (“to detach”), from Old French destachier (“to detach”), from des + atachier, alteration of estachier (“to fasten with or to a stake, lay claim to”), from estache (“a stake”), from Low Frankish stakkā (“stake”), from Proto-Germanic stakkaz, stakô (“stick, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)teg- (“stick, stake”). Akin to Old High German stecko (“post”) (German Stecken (“stick”)), Old Saxon stekko (“stake”), Old Norse stakkr (“hay stack, heap”), Old English staca (“stake”). More at stake.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA