Word of the Day

: January 19, 2025

virtuoso

noun ver-choo-OH-soh

What It Means

Virtuoso is used broadly to refer to a person who does something very skillfully, and is often used specifically to refer to a very skillful musician.

// He’s a real virtuoso in the kitchen, whipping up gourmet dishes for his family not just on holidays but on regular weeknights.

// Although the violin was her first instrument, she eventually proved to be a virtuoso on the harp.

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virtuoso in Context

"The newly assembled band finished its engagement and, shortly after, proceeded to New York to record Rich versus Roach (1959), a concept album pitting [Max] Roach in a drum battle with famed bandleader and drum virtuoso Buddy Rich." — Colter Harper, Jazz in the Hill: Nightlife and Narratives of a Pittsburgh Neighborhood, 2024

Did You Know?

English speakers borrowed the Italian noun virtuoso in the 1600s, but the Italian word had a former life as an adjective meaning both "virtuous" and "skilled." The first virtuosos (the English word can be pluralized as either virtuosos or, in the image of its Italian forbear, as virtuosi) were individuals of substantial knowledge and learning ("great wits," to quote one 17th-century clergyman). The word was then transferred to those skilled in the arts and specifically to skilled musicians. In time, English speakers broadened virtuoso to apply to a person adept in any pursuit.