Italian 'legato' (bound), from Latin 'ligare' (to bind) — notes tied smoothly together, the opposite of staccato.
A musical articulation in which notes are played smoothly and connected, with no perceptible gap between them.
From Italian 'legato' (bound, tied), the past participle of 'legare' (to bind, to tie, to connect), from Latin 'ligāre' (to bind, to tie). The Latin root is extraordinarily productive in English: 'ligament' (a binding tissue), 'ligature' (a binding), 'league' (a binding alliance), 'ally' (to bind to), 'oblige' (to bind toward), 'religion' (possibly 'a re-binding'), and 'rely' (to bind back to). In music, legato means the notes are 'bound' together, flowing seamlessly from one to the next without gaps
The musical term 'legato' (bound) and the word 'religion' may share a root. One ancient etymology of 'religion' — proposed by Lactantius in the 4th century — derives it from Latin 'religāre' (to re-bind, to bind back), from 're-' (back) and 'ligāre' (to bind) — the same verb that gives us 'legato.' Under this interpretation, religion is a 're-binding' of the human