bagatelle

[ bag-uh-tel ]

noun

1. something of little value or importance; a trifle:

   "A mere bagatelle," she murmured in response to my admiration of her ring.

2. a game played on a board having holes at one end into which balls are to be struck with a cue.
3. pinball.
4. a short and light musical composition, typically for the piano.

bagatelle

/ ˌbæɡəˈtɛl /

noun

1. something of little value or significance; trifle
2. a board game in which balls are struck into holes, with pins as obstacles; pinball
3. another name for bar billiards
4. a short light piece of music, esp for piano

Word History and Origins

Origin of bagatelle¹

First recorded in 1630–40; from French, from Italian bagat(t)ella, equivalent to bagatt(a) “small possession,” perhaps a derivative of bag(a) “berry” (from Latin bāca, bacca ) + -att(a), diminutive suffix + -ella, from Latin -illa diminutive suffix; bay ⁴

Word History and Origins

Origin of bagatelle¹

C17: from French, from Italian bagattella , from (dialect) bagatta a little possession, from baga a possession, probably from Latin bāca berry

Example Sentences

Nine grand is a mere bagatelle compared to the $175-million bond he had to pay in his New York fraud case, or the $88.3 million in all that he has been ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll in two separate cases related to Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually assaulted her at a New York department store in 1996, then defamed her by saying she lied about it.

From Los Angeles Times

If anything, the slowly accumulating final chord of the bagatelle could have set up the softly arpeggiated one at the start of “Twilight Way,” the first of the “Poetic Tone Pictures.”

From New York Times

Janacek destroyed the sonata’s third movement, tearing it out of the score and throwing it into a stove the day it premiered in 1906, but Andsnes programmed a fitting coda in a 2005 bagatelle by Valentin Silvestrov, Ukraine’s pre-eminent composer.

From New York Times

If there was a misstep on Tuesday, it was in following the bagatelle with Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, which might have provided an impassioned climax had it not been performed with such a level head.

From New York Times

That work’s relevance to demonstrations today, particularly over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prompted Andsnes to surround it with a “Lamento” by Alexander Vustin, a Russian who was little known outside his country and died early in the pandemic, and a bagatelle by Valentin Silvestrov, whose music has come to represent Ukrainian resistance.

From New York Times