Art & MusicGreek → English
Harmonium
/hɑːrˈmoʊniəm/noun
A small reed organ whose air is supplied by foot-pumped bellows.
The Greek roots
ἁρμονία
harmonía
fitting together, concord
Literally: “the joining instrument”
Follow a root:ἁρμονία5 words
The story of the word
ἁρμονία meant a joint before it meant a chord; it comes from ἁρμός, the fit between two pieces of wood, so the musical sense is carpentry turned into a metaphor. Alexandre Debain patented the instrument under this name in Paris in 1842. Missionaries then carried it to India, where it outlived European interest entirely and became standard in devotional singing.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → French → English
- First recorded
- 1840s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
harmonyharmonicaharmonicenharmonic
In a sentence
She pumped the harmonium with one foot and sang over the wheeze.