Sunday Word: Cantatrice
Aug. 29th, 2021 10:12 pmcantatrice [kan-tuh-tree-chey, -trees; Italian kahn-tah-tree-che; French kahn-ta-trees]
noun:
a woman who is a singer, especially a professional soloist
Examples:
From there, after a short period of recovery, the unstoppable cantatrice resumed her tour of Asia. (Mahima Macchione, Artist Profile: Anna Bishop, World Famous 19th-Century Soprano & Shipwreck Survivor, Operawire, June 2020)
Parodying an intellectual TV debate, the video features a philosophic speech given by a strange orator, a psychedelic cantatrice singing over a disco beat, and a wild banjo solo played by a clown in the middle of a phantasmagorical orgy. (Sarah Jae Leiber, La Femme Releases New Song and Video 'Disconnexion', Time, December 2020)
She had a glorious voice and, as Madame Biscacianti, subsequently attained fame as a cantatrice. (John Van der Zee Sears, My Friends at Brook Farm)
Origin:
'female professional singer,' 1803, from French cantatrice, from Italian, from Latin cantatrix, fem. of cantator 'a singer,' from cantare 'to sing' (from PIE root kan- 'to sing'). (Online Etymology Dictrionary)