fa

A syllable used in solfège to represent the fourth diatonic (or sixth chromatic) note of a major scale.

Noun

A syllable used in solfège to represent the fourth diatonic (or sixth chromatic) note of a major scale.
- And now Mrs. Waters (for we muſt confeſs ſhe was in the ſame Bed) being, I ſuppoſe, awakened from her Sleep, and ſeeing two Men fighting in her Bed-chamber, began to ſcream in the moſt violent Manner, crying out Murder!...
1. (shapenote) Sometimes syllable for both the tonic and the fourth.

Origin

From Glover's solmization, from Middle English fa (“fourth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian fa in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin famulī (“servants”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.