concert [L16th] Both concert and consort share a sense of togetherness, and indeed in the past the spellings of the two were often confused, and both share a mixed origin of French and Italian sources. A musical concert [L17th] may be played by a musical consort [L16th] of baroque musicians playing a concerto [M18th], which, as with so many musical terms, was taken directly from the Italian. People who consort together [L16th] act in partnership, and the noun consort [LME] originally had the sense ‘partner, colleague, fellow’ before it developed the sense ‘spouse’ [M17th]. This sense best represents the underlying Latin root of the word, which was formed from con- ‘with, together’ and sors ‘lot, fate’ (see further at sorcerer). A consortium [E19th] is simply a business partnership, and was taken directly from Latin.