musicality

the word 'musicality' is built upon the core concept of 'music', which traces back to the greek 'mousikē', an art under the patronage of the muses. the latin suffix '-ālis' was attached to form 'musicālis', meaning 'of or pertaining to music'. finally, the abstract noun-forming suffix '-itās' (english '-ity') was added, a highly productive process in medieval latin and later english, to create a term denoting the state or quality of being musical. this etymological construction logically progresses from the art form itself, to an adjective describing relation to it, and finally to an abstract noun capturing the inherent quality or aptitude for that art.

Structure: music (pertaining to music) + al (adjective suffix) + ity (noun suffix) music (from latin 'musica', from greek 'mousikē (tekhnē)', meaning '(art) of the muses'); al (latin adjectival suffix '-ālis', forming adjectives meaning 'of, relating to'); ity (latin nominal suffix '-itās', forming nouns indicating a state or quality).