ドルチェ

1910 is an early Japanese point for ドルチェ: Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten cites Yogaku Tebiki with the music meaning. The source is Italian dolce, from Latin dulcis, and Treccani gives its main sense as a sugar-like taste. In Italian it can be an adjective, a noun, and a music direction. Japanese first fixed ドルチェ in Western music education, where Italian words such as アンダンテ, アダージョ, アレグロ, and カンタービレ were standard score language. In that field, dolce means to play sweetly or tenderly. Later restaurant Japanese also used ドルチェ for Italian-style dessert, especially in menus and cafe writing after Italian food became common. Today, ドルチェ in Japanese usually means either a dessert or a musical expression mark. It does not work as a normal adjective meaning “sweet” in daily Japanese; 甘い does that job. Italian dolce can describe taste, personality, movement, or dessert, but Japanese narrows the word by field. Example: 食後にドルチェを頼む.