crotchet

English

Two crotchets and a crotchet rest

Etymology

From Middle English crochet, from Old French crochet (“small hook”), from croc + -et (diminutive suffix), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”). The musical note was named so because of a small hook on its stem in black notation (in modern notation this hook is on the quaver/eighth note). Doublet of crochet, crocket, and croquet.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɑt͡ʃ.ɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɒtʃ.ɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒtʃɪt

Noun

crotchet (plural crotchets)

1. (music) A musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.

   Synonym: (US) quarter note

   • 1920 August 27, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Wind Blows”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, pages 140–141:

     The crotchets and quavers are dancing up and down the stave like little black boys on a fence.

2. (obsolete) A sharp curve or crook; a shape resembling a hook
3. (surgery, now chiefly historical) A hook-shaped instrument, especially as used in obstetric surgery.
   • 1797 September 1, Hester Lynch Piozzi, Thraliana:

     Either Doctor Denman or an old Woman would have waited—but since the horrid death-doing Crotchet has been found out, & its use permitted—Oh! many & many a Life has been flung away.

4. (archaic) A whim or a fancy.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “Democracy”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book III (The Modern Worker), page 124:

     Thou who walkest in a vain shew, looking out with ornamental dilettante sniff and serene supremacy at all Life and all Death; and amblest jauntily; perking up thy poor talk into crotchets, thy poor conduct into fatuous somnambulisms; [...] dost thou call that "liberty!"

   • 1847, Thomas De Quincey, “Secret Societies”, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine:

     He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man.

5. A forked support; a crotch.
   • 1717, John Dryden, “Book VIII. [The Story of Baucis and Philemon.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 287:

     Their little Shed, ſcarce large enough for Two, / Seems, from the Ground increas'd, in Height and Bulk to grow. / A ſtately Temple ſhoots within the Skies, / The Crotchets of their Cot in Columns riſe: [...]

6. (military, historical) An indentation in the glacis of the covered way, at a point where a traverse is placed.
7. (military) The arrangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle.
8. (printing) A square bracket.

Derived terms

• crotcheteer
• crotchet rest
• crotchety

 

Translations

musical note

• Bulgarian: четвъртина нота (četvǎrtina nota)
• Catalan: negra (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 四分音符 (sei³ fan¹ jam¹ fu⁴)

  Mandarin: 四分音符 (zh) (sìfēn yīnfú)

• Danish: fjerdedelsnode c
• Dutch: kwart noot f
• Finnish: neljäsosanuotti (fi)
• French: noire (fr) f
• German: Viertelnote (de) f
• Greek: τέταρτο (el) n (tétarto)
• Hungarian: negyed (hu)
• Icelandic: fjórðapartsnóta f, fjórðipartur m
• Irish: croisín m, ceathrú nóta m
• Italian: semiminima f
• Japanese: 四分音符 (shibun onpu)
• Kashubian: czwiercnóta f
• Korean: 사분음표 (ko) (sabuneumpyo)
• Malay: krocet
• Maori: orotahi
• Middle English: crochet
• Polish: ćwierćnuta (pl) f
• Portuguese: semínima (pt) f
• Russian: четвертна́я но́та f (četvertnája nóta), че́тверть (ru) f (čétvertʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: punc dubh m
• Slovene: četrtinka f
• Spanish: negra (es) f
• Swedish: fjärdedelsnot (sv)
• Thai: โน้ตตัวดำ (not-tua-dam, literally “black body note”)
• Vietnamese: nốt đen (vi)
• Welsh: crosiet m, crosied m

Verb

crotchet (third-person singular simple present crotchets, present participle crotcheting, simple past and past participle crotcheted)

1. (obsolete) to play music in measured time
   • a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “(please specify the title)”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC:

     The nimblest crotcheting musician

2. Archaic form of crochet (knit by looping)

Norman

Etymology

From Old French crochet (“small hook”), from croc (with diminutive suffix -et), from Old Norse krókr (“hook”).

Noun

crotchet m (plural crotchets)

1. (Jersey, punctuation) bracket

Derived terms

• crotchet cârré (“square bracket”)