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From the Italian, meaning 'low voice'. To speak quietly out of the corner of your mouth so that the subject of your speech can't hear your insult or know that you are speaking.
"Oh, what a beautiful creature your daughter is", said Mrs. Mulroy saccarinely to Mrs. Katz at the Bat-mitzvah.
"Too bad the zoo can't identify what kind of creature she is", Mrs. Jackson said sotto voce to Mrs. Mulroy as they plastered wide smiles on their faces.
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An aside, like sotto voce, but spoken loudly enough that the person who is the subject can hear it, unlike sotto voce.
He spoke to them about me, but in a faux sotto voce for me to overhear: "Somebody doesn't know their place."
An aside, like sotto voce, but spoken loudly enough that the person who is the subject can hear it.
Note: There is no synonym that I'm aware of.
When he said "someone doesn't know their place!", he didn't say it sotto voce, but sotto-sotto voce, loud enough for all to hear.
Like sotto voce (commenting softly so that the third-person subject of the comment cannot hear the comment),
but spoken loudly with the intention that the third-person subject will hear that he is being spoken about.
A reversal of sotto voce: sotto-sotto intended to mean a loud voice.
Person 1 speaking to person 2 with person 3 in ear-shot (the subject of the remark):
In sotto-sotto voce: "Someone doesn't know their place!"