20 March 2016

sotto voce

[sot-oh voh-chee; Italian sawt-taw vaw-che]

adverb

1. in a low, soft voice so as not to be overheard.

Origin of sotto voce

1730-1740; < Italian: literally, under (the) voice

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for sotto voce

Contemporary Examples

One man I met in the city two weeks ago took me aside and told me, sotto voce, that 5,000 people had been killed in Homs alone.
Syrian Army Looks Poised to Attack Homs
James Harkin
December 13, 2011

Historical Examples

There were cheery responses to Bindle’s remarks, and sotto voce references to Mrs. Bindle as “a stuck-up cat.”
Adventures of Bindle
Herbert George Jenkins

“I shall soon have as great a horror of Gaza as Samson had,” said she, sotto voce.
The Bertrams
Anthony Trollope

Anagram

scoot vote
covets too
coot stove

Today’s quote

Sometimes I am happy and sometimes not. I am, after all, a human being, you know. And I am glad that we are sometimes happy and sometimes not. You get your wisdom working by having different emotions.

– Yoko Ono

On this day

20 March – International Day of Happiness (first stated in 2012 by the UN)

20 March 1969 – John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

20 March 1995 – Sarin gas, a nerve agent, is released in a Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring 5,500. A doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo is responsible.