solo

Solo is Italian for alone, from Latin solus (alone, single). In Italian music, a solo is a passage performed by a single instrument or voice — a moment when one performer steps out of the ensemble. The word entered English in the late seventeenth century as a musical term. A violin solo, a soprano solo, a drum solo — the word named the moment when one voice carried everything.

The musical meaning expanded to aviation in the early twentieth century. A pilot who flew alone — without an instructor — was said to 'fly solo.' The first solo transatlantic flight by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 made 'solo' a word of heroic individual achievement. The musical term for a single performer became the aviation term for a single pilot, and both meanings celebrated the individual against the group.

By mid-century, solo was a general adjective and adverb in English. 'Going solo' meant doing anything independently — leaving a band, starting a business, traveling alone. 'A solo career,' 'a solo album,' 'a solo exhibition.' The word shed its exclusively musical meaning and became the English language's preferred word for individual action. It was shorter than 'independently,' warmer than 'alone,' and more purposeful than 'by oneself.'

Han Solo, the character from Star Wars (1977), embedded the word in global pop culture with a different connotation: the solo operator who works outside the system. George Lucas named the character for his independence. The Italian word for alone became an English surname for the ultimate loner — a character whose name is his personality.