duo
/ˈdjuːəʊ
/- They could probably make it as a comedy duo if the music career falters.
- City have still to taste defeat when the experienced duo are paired together.
- While touring Australia Andy encountered both these duos and decided their music needed to be heard outside of their homeland.
- Contrary to popular belief his op. 5 sonatas are not solo works but duos for violin and violone, which, like the opp. 2 and 4 dance suites, require no keyboard accompaniment.
- You see, when you have duos for violin and piano, clarinet and piano, or even a string quartet, there is usually one person who has the final decision.
- We hope to have a go at the Beethoven clarinet/bassoon duos next week-end, operational exigencies permitting, of course!
Origin
Late 16th century (in sense 2): via Italian from Latin duo 'two'.
two from Old English:
An Old English word from the same source as twain, twelve, twenty, twilight, and twin (all OE), with an ancient root shared by Latin and Greek duo, source of double (Middle English), duo (late 16th century), duplicate (Late Middle English), and other words. The formula it takes two to…appeared in the 1850s in it takes two to make a quarrel, and in the 1940s in it takes two to make a bargain (see also tango). The saying two's company, three's a crowd was originally two's company, three's none, in the 1730s. Before the British currency was decimalized in 1971 twopence or tuppence was a standard sum. To add or put in your twopenn'orth is to contribute your opinion; twopenn'orth is a contraction of twopennyworth meaning ‘an amount costing two pence’, used also for ‘a small or insignificant amount’.