Fazioli pianos | Piano Nobile; Why more and more pianists are opting for instruments costing $200,000. Economist, May 7, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... 200000-piano-nobile
("Because they [Fazioli pianos] are made to order, customers have to wait between four and eight months for delivery of the instruments, for which they are prepared to pay as much as $200,000")
Note:
(a) piano nobile (n; from Italian [noun masculine] piano floor + [adjective masculine and feminine] nobile noble):
"(architecture) The floor of a building where the principle bedrooms and main reception rooms are found. Very often on the first or second floor in older buildings"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piano_nobile
(b) "IN 1980 a Roman engineer and pianist, Paolo Fazioli * * * opened a piano factory"
(i) Profile. Fazioli Pianoforti, undated
www.fazioli.com/en/fazioli/company/profile
("The Fazioli Company has produced grand and concert-grand pianos since 1981 * * * Each instrument is individually handcrafted combining high quality materials with the finest workmanship and technology. The Fazioli factory is located in Sacile, 60 Km (35 miles) northeast of Venice in the northeastern part of Italy. The area is renowned for an ancient and prestigious tradition in woodworking")
(ii) Italian English dictionary:
* pianoforte (noun; plural: pianofortes or pianoforti): "a piano"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pianoforte
* val: "apocopic form of [noun feminine] valle [valley]"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/val
(iii) piano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano
("The word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the instrument * * * The Italian musical terms [adjective masculine] piano and [adjective masculine and feminine] forte indicate 'soft[, quiet]' and 'loud[, strong]' respectively, in this context referring to the variations in volume produced in response to a pianist's touch on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, and the louder the sound of the note produced")
Take notice another definition of Italian adjective masculine piano is "flat, level," thus noun masculine piano means "floor."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/piano
(iv) The English nouns fort (a fortified place) and forte (a strong point) are both derived from Anglo-French adjective fort strong, from Latin (adjective masculine and feminine) fortis strong. The Italian adjective fort is also traced to the same Latin fortis.
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