pianistic
adjective
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."
Examples of pianistic in a Sentence
Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books, 6 Apr. 2022
Ravel’s four-hand arrangement of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun isn’t as evocative as the original orchestration, instead exploring pianistic colors.
—Dallas News, 30 June 2022
But before long, in a transition that few composers could handle so successfully, stark pianistic marching leads the orchestra into the punchy environs of percussive Americana.
—Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, 26 Aug. 2022
Near the end of his far too short life, already shadowed by illness, Schubert is also the master of subtle but telling pianistic gestures.
—Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 31 Jan. 2022
Among his students were Franz Liszt and Theodor Leschetizky; Barnatan and Ohlsson can trace their pianistic pedigrees back to Czerny.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Aug. 2022
For devotees of old films, listening to it brings back memories of countless midcentury movie scores that quoted its melodies, and so, by now this music blends redolences of vintage cinematic Americana with grand European pianistic virtuosity.
—Luke Schulze, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 May 2022
Frogs croak, a skylark soars above all in dazzling pianistic glitter, grasshopper warblers rattle as their names suggest, and one reed warbler enters into a rapturous contrapuntal duet with another.
—Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2021
Rabinovich is a newcomer to SummerFest and shares many of the pianistic sensibilities of Barnatan: clarity of line, an expressive cantabile tone and a respect for the composer’s intentions.
—Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Aug. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pianistic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near pianistic
Cite this Entry
“Pianistic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pianistic. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
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