Editing Cello (section)

==Etymology==
The name ''cello'' is derived from the ending of the [[Italian language|Italian]] ''violoncello'',<ref>{{cite encyclopedia| url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violoncello|title=Violoncello |dictionary=Merriam-Webster|access-date=October 4, 2016}}</ref> which means "little [[violone]]". [[Violone]] ("big viola") was a large-sized member of [[viol]] (viola da gamba) family or the [[violin]] ([[viola da braccio]]) family. The term "violone" today usually refers to the lowest-pitched instrument of the viols, a family of stringed instruments that went out of fashion around the end of the 17th century in most countries except England and, especially, France, where they survived another half-century before the louder [[violin]] family came into greater favour in that country as well.  

In modern [[Orchestra|symphony orchestras]], it is the second largest stringed instrument (the [[double bass]] is the largest). Thus, the name "violoncello" contained both the [[augmentative]] "''-one''" ("big") and the [[diminutive]] "''-cello''" ("little"). By the turn of the 20th century, it had become common to shorten the name to 'cello, with the apostrophe indicating the missing stem.<ref name="countess">{{cite magazine|author=Delbanco, Nicholas|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108101905/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-70397117.html|title=The Countess of Stanlein Restored|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-70397117.html|magazine=Harper's Magazine|access-date=4 October 2016|archive-date=January 8, 2009|date=January 1, 2001}}</ref> It is now customary to use "cello" without apostrophe as the full designation.<ref name="countess" /> ''Viol'' is derived from the root ''[[viola]]'', which was derived from [[Medieval Latin]] {{Lang|la-x-medieval|vitula}}, meaning stringed instrument.