Duet, Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, etc. Why is “trio” in here instead of tritet?

Question

Duet, Trio, Quartet, Quintet, Sextet, etc. Why is “trio” in here instead of tritet?

In: 154

Answer 1

As someone else pointed out in part, a “duo” is a group of two. A “duet” is more commonly a piece of music performed by a duo. So you have solo, duo, trio, then the -*et*s. I could dig into the etymology further but referring you to wiktionary seems more expedient

Edit: doing a little further digging anyway…looks like there is a word “triplet” meaning a group of three (vs “one of a group of three”) which fell into disuse, probably 1) as its other meaning gained prominence and 2) because “trio” already existed redundantly