cipresso di piano e forte ("a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud"), abbreviated over time as pianoforte, fortepiano, and later reduced to only piano.

Cristofori's great success was designing a stringed keyboard instrument in which the notes are struck by a hammer. The hammer must strike the string but not remain in contact with it, because continued contact would damp the sound and stop the string from vibrating and making sound. This means that after striking