Symphony
/ˈsɪmfəni/noun
An extended orchestral work, usually in several movements.
The Greek roots
Literally: “sounding together”
The story of the word
συμφωνία meant concord of sound, notes agreeing with each other. In the Latin Bible and through the Middle Ages the word named actual instruments at different times, among them a bagpipe and a hurdy-gurdy, which is why translations of Daniel disagree so wildly about what the king's musicians were playing. English had symphony around 1300 for harmony in general, and the orchestral form took the name from Italian sinfonia in the 18th century.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- c. 1300
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
The symphony runs about fifty minutes and the slow movement is the reason people come.
He whistled the opening of the fifth symphony without realising he was doing it.