sonata
/səˈnɑːtə/·소나타·noun
a musical composition for one or two instruments
FrenchCEFR B2
Root
Italian 'sonata' (a piece played), feminine past participle of 'sonare' (to sound) ← Latin 'sonare' (to sound)
Latin sonare (to sound) → Italian sonata (a sounded piece, as opposed to cantata = a sung piece) → English sonata (17th c.)
In a word
Latin sonare = 'to sound'. Italian turned it into the feminine past participle sonata — 'a piece that has been sounded'. At the time, music split into cantata (a sung piece) and sonata (an instrumented piece) — 'the sung' and 'the sounded'. From the same Latin sonare — sonata (a sounded piece), sonorous (richly resonant), sound (the Latin that crossed into Germanic and became English sound), resonate (to sound again = to resonate). Inside Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," the Latin verb 'to sound' flows for thirty-two minutes.
Examples
Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas.
The "Moonlight Sonata" is famous.
She practiced a violin sonata.
Related
sonatinasonoroussoundresonatecantata