Art & MusicGreek → English
Harmonica
/hɑːrˈmɒnɪkə/noun
A small rectangular wind instrument sounded by breathing across tuned reeds.
The Greek roots
ἁρμονία
harmonía
joining, fitting together
Literally: “the fitted-together thing”
Follow a root:ἁρμονία5 words
The story of the word
Benjamin Franklin built a set of nested spinning glass bowls in 1761 and named it the armonica, from the Italian for harmony. The reed instrument you can put in a pocket appeared in Germany in the 1820s and inherited the name. Greek ἁρμονία is a carpenter's word before it is a musician's: it is the fitting of joints, and Homer uses it for the pegs holding Odysseus's raft together.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Italian → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
harmonyharmonicphilharmonicharmonium
In a sentence
He played harmonica on the porch, badly, every evening for thirty years.