The term cadence has been part of the English language since the late fourteenth century. It was borrowed from Middle French and ultimately originated from the Old Italian noun cadenza, which meant “end of a musical movement”. More literally, it translated to “a falling”, as it stemmed from the Vulgar Latin cadentia, derived from the verb cadere meaning “to fall” (the association being that many songs conclude with a falling tone, which was then extended to encompass rhythm in general). Through Proto-Italic kado, cadere (which also gave rise to words such as case, cascade, cadaver, coincidence, chute, and accident) ultimately traces back to the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction kad, also meaning “fall”. The usage of the word cadence has remained relatively consistent over the years, comprising approximately 0.00015% of all written English.
