Word of the Day

: May 1, 2010

pianistic

adjective pee-uh-NISS-tik

What It Means

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the piano

2 : skilled in or well adapted to piano playing

pianistic in Context

“[Pianist Yuja] Wang performed as if she were claiming ownership of some of Prokofiev's pianistic ideas.” (Edward Ortiz, Sacramento Bee [California], May 23, 2009)

Did You Know?

The origin of "pianistic" won’t surprise anyone -- it’s ultimately from "piano," of course. But the "-istic” suffix is less than ubiquitous and bears some attention. It is used from time to time to create adjectives that correspond to nouns ending primarily in "-ism" or "-ist." (In this case, both "pianism" and "pianist" outdate "pianistic," although only by a few years.) The pedigree of "-istic" isn’t too surprising; etymologists report that it comes from Middle French ("-istique"), Latin ("-isticus"), and ultimately Greek ("-istikos"). As with words formed from the suffix "-ic," words ending in "-istic" can sometimes find life as nouns -- for example, "autistic" and "characteristic."