a. (adv., sb.) [It.: lit. ‘bound,’ pa. pple. of legare to bind:—L. ligāre.] Smooth and connected, with no breaks between the successive notes: used as adj. or adv., esp. as a direction to a performer to render a passage or piece in this style; also as sb. (Opposed to staccato.)
1811. in Busby, Dict. Mus. (ed. 3).
1815. European Mag., LXVIII. 154. Var. 11 is another instance of good legato style.
1848. Rimbault, 1st Bk. Piano, 91. Legato, in a smooth and connected manner.
1885. W. Glover, Mem. Cambr. Chorister, I. xxiv. 275. All the niceties and varieties of legato, staccato [etc.].
