contrafactum
Oct. 4th, 2021 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordLast week's theme was shorts, this week it's longs. Specifically, dozens: a week of words a dozen letters long, starting with:
contrafactum (kon-tra-FAK-tum) or contrafact (kon-tra-FAKT) - n., vocal music where lyrics have been substituted without substantial change to the music; esp., setting religious lyrics to the music of a secular song.
Not always religious, though -- many national anthems are contrafacta (note plural), including that of the United States, where an independent poem was set to the music of a drinking song (not entirely smoothly, I might add). And then there's the entire basis for Weird Al Yankovic's career, though parady resettings seem to be considered a special case. From Medieval Latin, neuter of contrafactus, past participle of contrafacere, to counterfeit, from Latin contra- + facere, to do -- so being in some sense a "fake" is in the root meaning.
(Well, more or less a dozen.)
---L.
contrafactum (kon-tra-FAK-tum) or contrafact (kon-tra-FAKT) - n., vocal music where lyrics have been substituted without substantial change to the music; esp., setting religious lyrics to the music of a secular song.
Not always religious, though -- many national anthems are contrafacta (note plural), including that of the United States, where an independent poem was set to the music of a drinking song (not entirely smoothly, I might add). And then there's the entire basis for Weird Al Yankovic's career, though parady resettings seem to be considered a special case. From Medieval Latin, neuter of contrafactus, past participle of contrafacere, to counterfeit, from Latin contra- + facere, to do -- so being in some sense a "fake" is in the root meaning.
(Well, more or less a dozen.)
---L.
