Art & MusicGreek → English
Syrinx
/ˈsɪrɪŋks/noun
The panpipe of Greek music, and the vocal organ at the base of a bird's windpipe.
The Greek roots
σῦριγξ
sŷrinx
pipe, shepherd's flute
Literally: “pipe”
Follow a root:σῦριγξ2 words
The story of the word
The instrument comes with its own origin story: the nymph Syrinx turned into marsh reeds to escape Pan, who cut the reeds and bound them into the pipe he then played. Anatomists in the nineteenth century gave the name to the organ where a bird's trachea forks, since it works like a set of pipes and lets some songbirds sing two notes at once. The same Greek word, meaning any tube, gives us syringe.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
syringesyringomyelia
In a sentence
The thrush's syrinx can produce two independent pitches at the same instant.
A carved syrinx of seven reeds turned up in the grave.