Poco

(It.: ‘little’, ‘somewhat’).

A direction that modifies many tempo, expression and dynamic marks in music. In strict Italian, poco forte and poco allegro would mean the opposite of forte and allegro; and Grove5 drew attention to the slovenliness of that usage, pointing out that un poco forte and un poco allegro were correct. But poco allegro is current, for better or worse, and must be considered part of ‘musicians' Italian’ (see Tempo and expression marks, §3). Pochettino, the diminutive, and pochissimo, the superlative, are also current in musical scores.