firework

Commercial firework displays are commonly launched from boats or other vessels

Saltpetre being the principal ingredient in fireworks, and a volatile body, by reaſon of its aqueous and aërial parts, is eaſily rarified by fire; but not ſo ſoon when foul and groſs, as when purified from its crude and earthy parts, which greatly retard its velocity: therefore, when any quantity of Fireworks are to be made, it ſhould be examined; for if it is not well cleanſed, and of a good ſort, your works will not have their proper effect; […]

1776, Robert Jones, John Muller, “Sect. I. Saltpetre.”, in Artificial Fireworks, Improved to the Modern Practice, from the Minutest to the Highest Branches; … Also, Mr. Muller's Fireworks, for Sea and Land Service, …, 2nd corr. edition, London: Printed for J. Millan, near Whitehall, →OCLC, page 1:

A device using gunpowder and other chemicals which, when lit, emits a combination of coloured flames, sparks, whistles or bangs, and sometimes made to rocket high into the sky before exploding, used for entertainment or celebration.


cycle of fifths

en-noun

cycle of fifths (plural cycles of fifths)

The composition modulates upwards through the cycle of fifths, eventually returning to the original key.

(music theory) A sequence of bass notes at intervals of one perfect fifth lower than the previous note. In twelve-tone equal temperament the sequence repeats every twelve tones, forming a cycle.


first violinist

first violinist (plural first violinists)

A violinist who is assigned to play melody (usually more technically difficult music).


second violinist

second violinist (plural second violinists)

A violinist who is assigned to play the second violin part.


second violin

The second violin part in an orchestral score, generally a harmony to the first violin's melody and generally less technically demanding.


A-sharp

The counterpoint began on a low A-sharp.

(music) A tone one semitone higher than A, denoted A♯.

Here the passage modulates into A-sharp and becomes very difficult to read.


invention

invention (countable and uncountable, plural inventions)

From Middle English invencion, invencioun, from Latin inventiō either directly or via Middle French invencion, from Latin invenīre (“to discover, find, invent”), from in- (“in-: in, into”) + venīre (“to come”). Doublet of inventio. Equivalent to invent + -ion.
Displaced native Old English orþanc.

der

I particularly like the inventions in C-minor.

INVENTION. A term used by J. S. Bach, and probably by him only, for small pianoforte pieces — 15 in 2 parts and 15 in 3 parts — each developing a single idea, and in some measure answering to the Impromptu of a later day.

1880, George Grove (editor and entry author), A Dictionary of Music and Musicians II, London: Macmillan & Co., page 15, Invention

(music) A small, self-contained composition, particularly those in J.S. Bach’s Two- and Three-part Inventions.

invenció

small self-contained musical composition


first fiddle

O'Neil played a lively first fiddle.

The fiddle part generally carrying the melody.

O'Neil had been first fiddle in the band for years.

One who takes a leading part in anything.


E flat major

(music) Alternative spelling of E-flat major


euphonium

From Ancient Greek εὔφωνος (eúphōnos) + -ium.

[T]hey could easily have been wearing euphoniums and woad for all the notice their quarry would have taken of them.

1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 68:

A valved brass instrument with conical tubing similar in appearance to a tuba but of higher pitch; a sax horn.


oink

Mom swallowed a spoonful of pudding and looked Daddy straight in the eye. "Oink, oink," she said, to let him know he was being a male chauvinist pig.

"The tub is too small!" "Then, I'll go first and you'll have to wait!" "Chauvinist pig!" "Oink, oink!"

2003, Robert N. Mansfield, Randy Maas, The Assassin: Attack on America:

You are such a male chauvinist oink, oink. You think that you are the only one who can drive a car or fly an airplane.

2005, Alinka Zyrmont, Forbidden Passion:

Drawing attention to male chauvinism (from the term male chauvinist pig).


A-flat

The bassoon came in on a low A-flat.

(music) A tone one semitone below A, between G and A, denoted A♭.

I had to take it to the shop because the A-flat was stuck.

(music) A key or other mechanism for producing an A-flat.

We will now hear the third sonata, in A-flat.


A-sharp major

{\key ais\major ais'bis'cisisdiseisfisisgisisais}

(music) the theoretical major key with A-sharp as its tonic and the notes A#, B#, C𝄪, D#, E#, F𝄪, G𝄪.

(music) the major chord with a root of A-sharp


B-flat major

{\key bes \major bes c'd'es'f'g'a'bes'2}

(music) The major key with B-flat as its tonic, with the notes B♭, C, D, E♭, F, G, and A, the key signature of which has two flats.

(music) The major chord with a root of B-flat.


A-minor

(music) the minor key with A as its tonic

(music) the minor chord with a root of A


glockenspiel

/ˈɡlɔk.ŋ̩ˌʃpiːl/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-glockenspiel.wav

From German Glockenspiel (literally “bells-set”).

bor

(music) A musical instrument of the percussion idiophone family of instruments; like the xylophone, it has tuned bars arranged like the keys on a piano, and is also smaller in size and higher in pitch.


A-flat major

{\key aes\major aes'bes'cdesesfgaes2}

(music) The major key with A-flat as its tonic, with the notes A♭, B♭, C, D♭, E♭, F, and G, the key signature of which has four flats.

(music) The major chord with a root of A-flat.


second fiddle

The second fiddle on that tune is almost as hard as the first fiddle.

(music) A fiddle part in harmony to the first fiddle.

toinen viulu

music: fiddle part in harmony to the first fiddle

I've been second fiddle in that orchestra for ten years now.

(music) The person playing second fiddle.


jar

en-noun

jar (countable and uncountable, plural jars)

From earlier jar, jur, jarre, jurre, of uncertain origin. Possibly from earlier *char, *chur, *charre, *churre (now spelt chirr, churr (“to make a sound”); compare also nightjar and its variant nightchurr), from Middle English *chirren, *cherren, *churren (“to sound, cry, murmur, complain”), from Old English ċeorian (“to murmur, gripe, complain with just cause”), from Proto-West Germanic *karēn (“to complain”). For the change of ch to j, compare also charm, jarm (“chirping”); achar, ajar (“slightly turned or open”), chaw, jaw, etc. The noun is derived from the verb.

inh

(countable) A clashing or discordant set of sounds, particularly with a quivering or vibrating quality.


pocket

From Middle English pocket (“bag, sack”), from Anglo-Norman poket, Old Northern French poquet, poquete, diminutive of poque, poke (“bag, sack”) (compare modern Norman pouquette and modern French pochette from Old French pochete, from puche), from Frankish *pokā (“pouch”), from Proto-Germanic *pukkô, *pukô (“bag; pouch”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Doublet of pochette. Cognate with Middle Dutch poke, Alemannic German Pfoch (“purse, bag”), Old English pocca, pohha (“poke, pouch, pocket, bag”), Old Norse poki (“bag, pocket”). Compare the related poke (“sack or bag”). See also Modern French pochette and Latin bucca.

der

is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me

in the pocket

(music) A state achieved with steady, enjoyable drumming.


tag

From Middle English tagge (“small piece hanging from a garment”), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian tagg (“point; prong; barb; tag”), Swedish tagg (“thorn; prickle; tine”), Icelandic tág (“a willow-twig”). Compare also tack.

cog

(music) The last line (or last two lines) of a song's chorus that is repeated to indicate the end of the song.

припев

music: last line or lines of a song's chorus that is repeated


B major

{\key b\major b cis'dis'e'fis'gis'ais'b'2}

(music) The major key with B as its tonic, with the notes B, C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, and A♯, the key signature of which has five sharps:

(music) The major chord with a root of B.


A major

{\key a \major a'b'cisdefisgisa2}

(music) The major key with A as its tonic, with the notes A, B, C♯, D, E, F♯, and G♯, the key signature of which has three sharps.

(music) The major chord with a root of A.


fiddler

From Middle English fithelere, from Old English fiþelere, from *fiþele. By surface analysis, fiddle + -er.
(capstan-house): So called because the fiddle would sometimes be played to cheer the sailors working there.

We were the self-controlled, cautious, nifty merchants, decorous fiddlers of accounts, hoarders of wealth, excellent bribers, family and community creatures governed by manners.

2005, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, The drama of my life (in The Independent online, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/the-drama-of-my-life-483792.html)

The community of radio amateurs—trespassing fiddlers on the cutting edge of technological possibilities—prefigured the geek community that was to inhabit Silicon Valley 50 years later.

2012, Fiorenza Belussi, Udo Hermann Staber, Managing Networks of Creativity, page 92:

A burrowing crab of the genus Gelasimus, of many species. The male has one claw very much enlarged, and often holds it in a position similar to that in which a musician holds a fiddle.

Actitis hypoleucos
Actitis hypoleucos#Translingual

The common European sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos); so called because it habitually wags its tail up and down resembling the back and forth movement of a fiddler.

A large species of cicada, Macrotristria angularis, of eastern Australia; cherry nose.


bard

(15th c.) from Scottish Gaelic bàrd, from Old Irish bard, from Proto-Celtic *bardos (“bard, poet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“praise”), and reinforced by Latin bardus, borrowed from Celtic. Cognate with Latin grātus (“grateful, pleasant, delightful”), Sanskrit गृणाति (gṛṇāti, “calls, praises”), Old Church Slavonic жрьти (žrĭti, “to sacrifice”).

He is a Welsh bard, and a man full of animation, anecdote, and independence; […]

1837, Richard Llwyd, The Poetical Works of Richard Llwyd, the Bard of Snowdon:

A WEAPON, THE WARRIOR CARRIES. A SAW, THE IDIOT CARRIES. AN INSTRUMENT, THE BARD CARRIES.

2023, Rundisc, Chants of Sennaar, Focus Entertainment, via Nintendo Switch, level/area: Gardens:

A professional poet and singer, like among the ancient Celts, whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men.

бард

professional poet and singer — see also minstrel


stereo

en-noun

stereo (countable and uncountable, plural stereos)

Shortened form of stereotype, stereoscope or stereophonic, all originally derived from Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”).

der

He liked to listen to classical music on his stereo.

(by extension) Any object or device equipped with audio components that reproduces sound in stereo, such as a stereo console in the home.

(Myanmar, music) genre of Western-style pop and rock music


lute

From Middle French lut (modern luth), from Old French leüt, probably from Old Occitan laüt, from Arabic اَلْعُود (al-ʕūd, “wood”) (probably representing an Andalusian Arabic or North African pronunciation). Doublet of oud, lavta, and laouto.

Coordinate term: guitar

A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard.


kettle

→ Brunei Malay: kitil

→ Persian: کتری (ketri)

→ Bengali: কেটলি (keṭli)

→ Hindi: केतली (ketlī)

→ Gujarati: કીટલી (kīṭlī)

→ Irish: citeal

→ Maltese: kitla

→ Zulu: igedlela

From Middle English ketel, also chetel, from Old English ċietel (“kettle, cauldron”) and in Middle English possibly influenced by Old Norse ketill and both from Proto-Germanic *katilaz (“kettle, bucket, vessel”), of uncertain origin and formation. Usually regarded as a borrowing of Late Latin catīllus (“small bowl”), diminutive of Latin catinus (“deep bowl, vessel for cooking up or serving food”), however, the word may be Germanic confused with the Latin: compare Old English cete (“cooking pot”), Old High German chezzi (“a kettle, dish, bowl”), Icelandic kati, ketla (“a small boat”). Cognate with West Frisian tsjettel (“kettle”), Dutch ketel (“kettle”), German Kessel (“kettle”), Swedish kittel (“cauldron”), Swedish kittel (“kettle”), Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (katils, “kettle”), Finnish kattila, Polish kocioł (“cauldron”), Czech kotel (“boiler”), Russian котёл (kotjól, “boiler, cauldron”).


lock in

en-verb

lock in (third-person singular simple present locks in, present participle locking in, simple past and past participle locked in)

locks in (present singular third-person)
locking in (participle present)
locked in (participle past)
locked in (past)

(transitive, music) To synchronize (especially a rhythm section) into a groove.


adagissimo

Borrowed from Italian adagissimo, superlative of adagio.


lamentoso

en-adv

lamentoso (comparative more lamentoso, superlative most lamentoso)

more lamentoso (comparative)
most lamentoso (superlative)


fiddle

→ Swahili: fidla

From Middle English fithele, from Old English *fiþele, from Proto-West Germanic *fiþulā, from Proto-Germanic *fiþulǭ (“fiddle”), of uncertain etymology. Some contest that the Germanic terms are borrowed variations of Late Latin vitula (see viola); others contest that the word has a separate origin within Germanic languages, and still others believe that the Late Latin term for the stringed instrument is a borrowing from Germanic as a change of Latin t to Germanic þ is highly improbable, yet Germanic þ to Latin t is well documented (see troop, Teobaldo, etc.). Cognate with Old High German fidula (German Fiedel), Middle Dutch vedele (Dutch vedel, veel), Old Norse fiðla (Icelandic fiðla, Danish fiddel, Norwegian fela, Swedish fela). The change from /ðl/ to /dl/ in modern English is regular; compare staddle, swaddle (in brothel, it was prevented; see that entry for discussion).

hang up one's fiddle when one comes home

there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle

...Of harpe & of salteriun. of fiðele & of coriun...

c. 1275, Layamon, Brut, Cotton Caligula A.IX, l. 3490

The fiddle of these early times, however, was the viol and not our modern violin.

1864, William Sandys et al., The History of the Violin..., page 38:

Johnny, rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
'Cause Hell's broke loose in Georgia an' the Devil deals the cards...

1979, Charlie Daniels et al., The Devil Went Down to Georgia:

When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like that, it's a violin.

Synonym of violin, a small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin, shoulder, chest or on the upper thigh and played with a bow; the position of a violinist in a band; (usually proscribed) any of various bowed stringed instruments, particularly those of the violin family when played non-classically.

violin

watchman's rattle
watchman's rattle#English

(UK slang, obsolete) Synonym of watchman's rattle.

Something resembling a violin in shape, particularly:

(biology) A dock (Rumex pulcher) with leaves supposed to resemble the musical instrument.


divide

en-verb

divide (third-person singular simple present divides, present participle dividing, simple past and past participle divided)

divides (present singular third-person)
dividing (participle present)
divided (participle past)
divided (past)

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English tōdǣlan.

dividend

the sum being divided, the upper term in a fraction

divisor

the number of parts in a division, the lower term in a fraction

About the bed sweet musicke did divide

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

(music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.


affrettando

(music) In a rushing or hurrying manner; as if pressing onwards.


mix

mix (third-person singular simple present mixes, present participle mixing, simple past and past participle mixed)

mixes (present singular third-person)
mixing (participle present)
mixed (participle past)
mixed (past)
mix (infinitive)

From Middle English mixen (attested in past tense as mixed, myxyd), from Old English *mixian, miscian, from Proto-West Germanic *miskijan, from Proto-Germanic *miskijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *miḱ-sḱé-ti, from *meyǵ-, *meyḱ- (“to mix”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian miskje (“to mix, blend”), Middle Dutch mischen (“to mix”), Low German misken, mischen (“to mix”), Old High German miskian, miskēn (“to mix”) (German mischen), Welsh mysgu (“to mix”), Latin misceō (“mix”), Ancient Greek μίγνυμι (mígnumi, “to mix”), Old Church Slavonic мѣсити (měsiti, “to mix”), Lithuanian mišti and maišyti (“to mix”), Sanskrit मिश्र (miśra, “mixed”), Persian آمیختن (âmixtan, “to mix”), Old English māsc (“mixture, mash”). More at mash.

cog

I'll mix the rhythm tracks down to a single track.

(transitive, music) To combine (several tracks).

I'm almost done mixing this song.

(transitive, music) To produce a finished version of (a recording).

mikse

music: produce a finished version of a recording


mix

→ Belarusian: мікс (miks)

→ Polish: miks

→ Russian: микс (miks)

→ Turkish: miks, mix

→ Ukrainian: мікс (miks)

A merger of a nominal use of the verb and a borrowing from Anglo-Norman mixte, from Latin mixtus, past participle of misceō (“mix”). Nowadays regarded automatically as the nominal form of the verb.

The rhythm mix sounds muddy.

(music) The result of mixing several tracks.

I've almost finished the mix for this song.

(music) The finished version of a recording.


octave

From Latin octavus (“eighth”). Doublet of octavo, ochava, and oitava.

Octave in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

The melody jumps up an octave at the beginning, then later drops back down an octave.

The singer was known for astounding clarity over her entire five-octave range.

The octave has a pitch ratio of 2:1.

(music) An interval of twelve semitones spanning eight degrees of the diatonic scale, representing a doubling or halving in pitch frequency.

The bass starts on a low E, and the tenor comes in on the octave.

(music) The pitch an octave higher than a given pitch.

(music) A coupler on an organ which allows the organist to sound the note an octave above the note of the key pressed (cf sub-octave)


toll

Probably the same as Etymology 3. Possibly related to or influenced by toil

The act or sound of ringing a bell, especially slowly, as with a church or cemetery bell.

звон

колоко́льный


toll

en-verb

toll (third-person singular simple present tolls, present participle tolling, simple past and past participle tolled)

tolls (present singular third-person)
tolling (participle present)
tolled (participle past)
tolled (past)

The ringer tolled the workers back from the fields for vespers.

When hollow murmurs of their evening bells
Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells.

1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

(transitive) To summon by ringing a bell.

The bells tolled the King’s death.

Slow tolls the village-clock the drowſy hour;
The partridge burſts away on whirring wings;
Deep mourns the turtle in ſequeſter'd bower,
And ſhrill lark carols clear from her aereal tour.

1771, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First, London: […] E[dward] & C[harles] Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: A[lexander] Kincaid and W[illiam] Creech; and J[ohn] Bell, […], →OCLC, stanza XLI, page 21:

(transitive) To announce by ringing a bell.


glow

en-noun

glow (countable and uncountable, plural glows)

From Middle English glowen, from Old English glōwan, from Proto-Germanic *glōaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel-. Cognate with Saterland Frisian gloie, glöie, gluuje, West Frisian gloeie, Dutch gloeien, German glühen, Danish and Norwegian glo, Icelandic glóa, Finnish loistaa. See also glass.

Thus all that Art and Con had to do, when the night was favourable, was to advance a little way along the avenue, until they reached the place whence the light, if it was burning, must be visible, as a glow, a feeble glow, in the air, and thence to go on, towards the back door, or to go back, towards the gate, as the case might be.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

The door of the twins' room opposite was open; a twenty-watt night-light threw a weak yellow glow into the passageway. David could hear the twins breathing in time with each other.

1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:

The light given off by a glowing object.


giusto

/ˈd͡ʒuːstəʊ/

Borrowed from Italian giusto (“right, just”). Doublet of just.


giusto

/ˈd͡ʒuːstəʊ/

(music) Following a tempo marking strictly or exactly.


funk

funk (countable and uncountable, plural funks)

1620, from French dialectal (Norman) funquer, funquier (“to smoke, reek”), from Old Northern French fungier (“to smoke”), from Vulgar Latin fūmicāre, alteration of Latin fūmigāre (“to smoke, fumigate”). Related to French dialect funkière (“smoke”). More at fumigate.

The foulest stench is in the air; the funk of 40,000 years and grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom.

1982, “Thriller”, in Rod Temperton (lyrics), Quincy Jones (music), Thriller, performed by Michael Jackson (featuring Vincent Price), Epic Records:

(countable) Foul or unpleasant smell, especially body odor.

(uncountable, music) A style of music derived from 1960s soul music, with elements of rock and other styles, characterized by a prominent bass guitar, dance-friendly sound, a strong emphasis on the downbeat, and much syncopation.


funk

From Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funca (“spark”), from Proto-Germanic *funkô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng- (“to shine”). Cognate with Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”). See also spunk.


garnet

From Middle English gernet, granate, from Old French grenate, from grenat (“pomegranate red”). Doublet of grenade.


fiery

en-adj

fiery (comparative more fiery or fierier, superlative most fiery or fieriest)

more fiery (comparative)
fierier (comparative)
most fiery (superlative)
fieriest (superlative)

From Middle English fyry, from fyr (“fire”). Equivalent to fire + -y.

Blast after blast, fiery outbreak after fiery outbreak, like a flaming barrage from within,[…]most of Edison's grounds soon became an inferno. As though on an incendiary rampage, the fires systematically devoured the contents of Edison's headquarters and facilities.

2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:


straw

en-noun

straw (countable and uncountable, plural straws)

→ Japanese: ストロー

From Middle English straw, from Old English strēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *strau, from Proto-Germanic *strawą (“that which is strewn, straw”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread around, strew”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sträi (“straw”), West Frisian strie (“straw”), Dutch stro (“straw”), German Low German Stroh (“straw”), German Stroh (“straw”), Norwegian and Swedish strå (“straw”), Icelandic strá (“straw”), Walloon strin, Albanian shtrohë (“kennel”).

der

straw:

(uncommon) A pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

The Bromfield Street offices were housed in a dilapidated but heavily-insured building, owned by a straw for a wealthy downtown real estate developer, surrounded by expensive new commercial developments, and in a city renowned for arson-for-profit.

1984 August 4, Larry Goldsmith, “Cops Charged With Setting GCN Fire”, in Gay Community News, page 1:


straw

Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.


bay

From Middle English baye, baie, from Old English beġ (“berry”), as in beġbēam (“berry-tree”), conflated with Old French baie, from Latin bāca (“berry”).

Laurus nobilis
Laurus nobilis#Translingual

Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.


bay

en-verb

bay (third-person singular simple present bays, present participle baying, simple past and past participle bayed)

bays (present singular third-person)
baying (participle present)
bayed (participle past)
bayed (past)

From Old French bay, combined with aphetized form of abay; verbal form of baier, abaier.

The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bay'd.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doom of the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the hound of the gods, shall bay hungrily at his masters because he is lean with age.

1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 92:

The scene was rocking, all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The coffin-bangers were about to arrive
With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:


bay

en-noun

bay (countable and uncountable, plural bays)

From Middle English bay, bai, from Old French bai, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).

der

bay:

A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.


tala

(music) A rhythmic pattern in Indian music.


subsidiary

From Middle French subsidiaire, from Latin subsidiarius (“belonging to a reserve”).


rap

en-noun

rap (countable and uncountable, plural raps)

→ Dutch: raps

⇒ Dutch: rapsen

→ Finnish: rap

→ German: Rap

→ Macedonian: рап (rap)

From Middle English rap, rappe, of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian rapp (“a blow, strike, lash”), Swedish rapp (“a blow, lash, crack”), Danish rap (“a tap, smart, blow”). Compare Old English hreppan (“to touch, treat”). More at rape.

They like listening to rap.


click

Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).

onomatopoeic

Imitative

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(graphical user interface) The act of pressing a button on a computer mouse or similar input device, both as a physical act and a reaction in the software.


cipher

14th century. From Middle English cifre, from Old French cyfre, cyffre (French chiffre), ultimately from Arabic صِفْر (ṣifr, “zero, empty”), from صَفَرَ (ṣafara, “to be empty”). Doublet of zero. Sense 8 (a fault in an organ valve) may be a different word.

(music) A fault in an organ valve which causes a pipe to sound continuously without the key having been pressed.

They say no girls in the cipher, so I rock solo

2011, “The World Is Listening”, in The Journey Aflame, performed by Akua Naru:


cipher

en-verb

cipher (third-person singular simple present ciphers, present participle ciphering, simple past and past participle ciphered)

ciphers (present singular third-person)
ciphering (participle present)
ciphered (participle past)
ciphered (past)

(intransitive, music) Of an organ pipe: to sound independent of the organ.


nasal

en-adj

nasal (comparative more nasal, superlative most nasal)

more nasal (comparative)
most nasal (superlative)

From Middle English, from Medieval Latin nāsālis, from nāsus (“the nose”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix). Doublet of nasalis.


spark

→ Esperanto: sparko

→ Japanese: スパーク

From Middle English sparke, sperke, from Old English spearca, from Proto-West Germanic *sparkō (compare Saterland Frisian Spoorke, West Frisian spark, Dutch spark, German Low German Sparke, German Sparke), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *sparkaz (“lively, energetic”), from Proto-Indo-European *sperg- (“to strew, sprinkle”) (compare Breton erc’h (“snow”), Latin spargō (“to scatter, spread”), sparsus (“scattered”), Lithuanian sprógti (“to germinate”), Ancient Greek σπαργάω (spargáō, “to swell”), Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬀𐬯𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬈𐬔𐬀 (frasparega, “branch, twig”), Sanskrit पर्जन्य (parjanya, “rain, rain god”)).

cog

A small particle of glowing matter, either molten or on fire, resulting from an electrical surge or excessive heat created by friction.

A small, shining body, or transient light; a sparkle.


spark

en-verb

spark (third-person singular simple present sparks, present participle sparking, simple past and past participle sparked)

sparks (present singular third-person)
sparking (participle present)
sparked (participle past)
sparked (past)

Byron sparked the cigarette. He sucked it dramatically and thrust it into Marko's hand.

2009, Alex Jenson, The Serotonin Grand Prix, page 12:


arrange

arrange (third-person singular simple present arranges, present participle arranging, simple past and past participle arranged)

arranges (present singular third-person)
arranging (participle present)
arranged (participle past)
arranged (past)

Inherited from Middle English arengen, arrangen (“to draw up a battle line”), borrowed from Old French arengier, arrangier (“to put in a line, put in a row”), derived from reng, rang, ranc (“line, row, rank”), from Frankish *hring (“ring”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krengʰ-, a form of Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).

der

(music, transitive, intransitive) To prepare and adapt an already-written composition for presentation in other than its original form.

arrenjar

music: to adapt an existing composition for presentation


arrange

(music, Japan) rearranged rendition of a song; arrangement


repeat

From Middle English repeten, from Old French repeter, from Latin repetō, repetere, from the prefix re- (“again”) + peto (“attack, beseech”).

ҡабатлау

rerun of a television broadcast — see also rerun

(music) A mark in music notation directing a part to be repeated.

herhalingsteken

music mark directing a section be repeated


measure

→ Japanese: メジャー (mejā)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-measure.wav

From Middle English mesure, from Old French mesure, from Latin mēnsūra (“a measure”), from mēnsus, past participle of mētīrī (“to measure”). Displaced native Old English metan (“to measure”) and ġemet (“a measure”).

lainsäädäntötoimenpide

piece of legislation as course of action

(music) A musical designation consisting of all notes and or rests delineated by two vertical bars; an equal and regular division of the whole of a composition; a bar.


topic

From Latin topica, from Ancient Greek τοπικός (topikós, “pertaining to a place, local, pertaining to a common place, or topic, topical”), from τόπος (tópos, “a place”), of Pre-Greek origin.

In Peircean terms, topics are interpretants: signifieds that become new signifiers in the endless semiotic chain of interpretations.

2012, Esti Sheinberg, Music Semiotics, page 9:

(music) A musical sign intended to suggest a particular style or genre.


concord

en-noun

concord (countable and uncountable, plural concords)

From French concorde, Latin concordia, from concors (“of the same mind, agreeing”); con- + cor, cordis (“heart”). See heart, and compare accord.

If the true concord of well tuned ſounds, / By vnions married to offend thine eare, / They do but ſweetly chide thee, who confounds / In ſingleneſſe the parts that thou ſhould'ſt beare.

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 8”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

(probably influenced by chord, music) An agreeable combination of tones simultaneously heard; a consonant chord; a consonance; a harmony.


virtuoso

/ˌvɜ.tʃuˈəʊ.səʊ/

Borrowed from Italian virtuoso, from Late Latin virtuōsus (“virtuous”), from Latin virtus (“excellence”). Doublet of virtuous.

For, besides the extraordinary Neatness of the Room, it was adorned with a great Number of Nicknacks, and Curiosities, which might have engaged the Attention of a Virtuoso.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 10, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII, page 224:

(now historical) An expert in virtù or art objects and antiquities; a connoisseur.

Someone with special skill or knowledge; an expert.

Specifically, a musician (or other performer) with masterly ability, technique, or personal style.

վիրտուոզ

A person with masterly ability, technique or style


virtuoso

en-adj

virtuoso (comparative more virtuoso, superlative most virtuoso)

more virtuoso (comparative)
most virtuoso (superlative)

/ˌvɜ.tʃuˈəʊ.səʊ/

Instead, he was able to sit alongside De Bruyne on the City bench admiring a virtuoso performance from Foden, pulling every string in the number 10 role and illustrating again why he is so important to Guardiola, and why he simply must start for Gareth Southgate's England at Euro 2024.

2024 April 3, Phil McNulty, “Man City 4-1 Aston Villa: Phil Foden produces 'masterclass' to show worth again”, in BBC:


principal

en-noun

principal (countable and uncountable, plural principals)

From Middle English principal, from Old French principal, from Latin prīncipālis.

Principal (education)
Principal value
principal

(music) A diapason, a type of organ stop on a pipe organ.


cutaway

fraklip

the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else

(music) An indentation in the upper bout of a guitar's body adjacent to the neck, allowing easier access to the upper frets.

échancrure

indentation in a guitar's body, adjacent to the neck


complain

en-verb

complain (third-person singular simple present complains, present participle complaining, simple past and past participle complained)

complains (present singular third-person)
complaining (participle present)
complained (participle past)
complained (past)

From Middle English complaynen, from Old French complaindre, from Medieval Latin complangere (“to bewail, complain”), from Latin com- (“together”) + plangere (“to strike, beat, as the breast in extreme grief, bewail”); see plain, plaint.

der

you'd complain if you were hung with a new rope

the complaining bed-springs

To creak or squeak, as a timber or wheel.


nicker

This coat cost me 50 nicker.

Seems? Well, this seems to be a waste of my time. That is 900 nicker in any shop you're lucky enough to find one in. And you're complaining about 200? What school of finance did you study?

1998, Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (motion picture), spoken by Tom (Jason Flemyng):


nicker

The cutting lip which projects downward at the edge of a boring bit and cuts a circular groove in the wood to limit the size of the hole that is bored.


nicker

From Middle English niker, from Old English nicor, from Proto-Germanic *nikwis. Cognate with German Nix (“water demon”) and German Nixe (“mermaid”); also related to Old Norse nykr (“water demon”) (see there for further descendants). Doublet of nix.

And in another tale, told at Kemnitz of the Nicker, as he is there called, when he asks the midwife how much he owes her, she answers that she will take no more from him than from other people.

1891, Edwin Sidney Hartland, The Science of Fairy Tales, page 48:

A type of mythological sea creature or sea monster; also, a water sprite; a nix or nixie; a mermaid or merman.


prime

composite

prime element of a mathematical structure

From Middle English prime, from Old French prime and its etymon, Latin prīmus (“first”), from earlier prīsmos < *prīsemos < Proto-Italic *priisemos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“beyond, before”). Doublet of primo and primus.
The noun sense "apostrophe-like symbol" originates from the fact that the symbol ′ was originally a superscript Roman numeral one.

(music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.

тоника

music: first note or tone of a musical scale


oi

Variant of the interjection hoy with h-dropping in working class and Cockney speech; first recorded in the 1930s. Compare also unrelated Portuguese oi and Japanese おい (oi).

A way for Oi musicians to avoid responsibility for acts of violence that were preceded by listening to Oi is the claim that what people do with their music is out of the control of the musicians themselves.

1997, David Schwarz, Listening subjects: music, psychoanalysis, culture:

Oi! is characterized by cleaner guitars and slower tempos than most punk music, and many Oi! songs feature sing-along, "soccer chant" choruses.

2012, Tiffini Travis, Perry Hardy, Skinheads: A Guide to an American Subculture:

(UK, sometimes capitalized) A working-class punk rock subgenre of the 1970s, sometimes associated with racism.


sax

From Middle English sax, sex, from Old English seax (“a knife, hip-knife, an instrument for cutting, a short sword, dirk, dagger”), from Proto-West Germanic *sahs, from Proto-Germanic *sahsą (“stone chip, knife”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”). Doublet of seax and zax.

inh

(obsolete) A knife or sword; a dagger about 50 cm (20 inches) in length.


sax

en-verb

sax (third-person singular simple present saxes, present participle saxing, simple past and past participle saxed)

saxes (present singular third-person)
saxing (participle present)
saxed (participle past)
saxed (past)

(transitive, British dialectal) To cut or slash with a sharp instrument; incise; scarify.


sax

Clipping of saxophone. Distantly related to etymology 1 above, because the “Sax” surname is a cognate.


sax

Japanese: サックス (sakkusu)

Clipping of saxe blue, from the name of the region of Saxony.

sax:

(fashion) a shade of colour similar to sky blue


cannel

en-noun

cannel (countable and uncountable, plural cannels)

Cannel is dull black in colour while boghead is dull brownish.

2018, O. P. Gupta, Elements of Fuel & Combustion Technology, page 35:

A bituminous coal that burns brightly with much smoke.


bloop

en-verb

bloop (third-person singular simple present bloops, present participle blooping, simple past and past participle blooped)

bloops (present singular third-person)
blooping (participle present)
blooped (participle past)
blooped (past)

onom

Imitative

The ducks quack,
The birds chirp,
The fish bloop.

2020, Alex K. Bishop, “The Man, a Bench in the Park”, in Nothing Important: Allegorical poems in the pursuit of meaning, Altona, Manitoba: FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 13:

(onomatopoeia, especially of a fish) To blow air bubbles or audibly slosh about in water.

(informal) To produce a low-pitched beeping sound.


bloop

Imitative

Slowly exhale using short, quick bursts through the mouth, making 'bloop' sounds to mimic a fish each time.

2018 August 21, Nicola Harvey, Mindful Little Yogis: Self-Regulation Tools to Empower Kids with Special Needs to Breathe and Relax, London: Singing Dragon, →ISBN, page 51:

(onomatopoeia) The sound of a fish blowing air bubbles in water.

The robot produced a series of beeps and bloops before giving its answer to the problem.

A fiendish yell then followed / Ev'ry salvo's 'bang' and 'bloop'.

1992, Bob Magor, Blood on the Board, page 39:


sandy

en-adj

sandy (comparative sandier, superlative sandiest)

sandier (comparative)
sandiest (superlative)

From Middle English sandi, sondy, sandiȝ, from Old English sandiġ (“sandy”), equivalent to sand + -y. Cognate with Dutch zandig (“sandy”), German sandig (“sandy”), Swedish sandig (“sandy”).

Some plants grow best in sandy soil.

Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

sandy:


invert

en-verb

invert (third-person singular simple present inverts, present participle inverting, simple past and past participle inverted)

inverts (present singular third-person)
inverting (participle present)
inverted (participle past)
inverted (past)

(transitive, music) To move (the root note of a chord) up or down an octave, resulting in a change in pitch.


brassy

en-adj

brassy (comparative brassier, superlative brassiest)

brassier (comparative)
brassiest (superlative)

From brass + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning “having the quality of”).

suffix

y<pos:suffix forming adjectives meaning “having the quality of”><id:adjectival>

an organ stop with a brassy tone


brassy

Kyphosus vaigiensis, a fish found in southeast Asia.


atonal

en-adj

atonal (comparative more atonal, superlative most atonal)

more atonal (comparative)
most atonal (superlative)


assai

(music) A tempo direction equivalent to "very".


curr

en-verb

curr (third-person singular simple present currs, present participle curring, simple past and past participle curred)

currs (present singular third-person)
curring (participle present)
curred (participle past)
curred (past)

1798, William Wordsworth, The Idiot Boy, first published in 1798, Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, republished in 1827, The Poetical Works of Wordsworth, 1872, page 53,
The owlets hoot, the owlets curr, / And Johnny's lips they burr, burr, burr,

(archaic, intransitive) To coo like an owl.

(archaic, intransitive) To purr like a cat.


bumble

bumble (third-person singular simple present bumbles, present participle bumbling, simple past and past participle bumbled)

bumbles (present singular third-person)
bumbling (participle present)
bumbled (participle past)
bumbled (past)

* Verb: Frequentative of boom and/or bum, equivalent to bum + -le.
* Noun: From the verb.

(intransitive) To boom, as a Eurasian bittern.


bumble

(UK, Ireland, dialect) The Eurasian bittern.


triple

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Middle English triple (also þripell), from Latin triplus. Doublet of treble.

(music) Of time, three times as fast as very fast.


fill

en-noun

fill (countable and uncountable, plural fills)

From Middle English fille, vülle, fülle, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-West Germanic *fullī, from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄ (“fullness”). Cognate with German Fülle.

The second part of recomposed Embroidering Golden Banner achieves the brightness and cheerfulness of music, and presents a cheerful passion through sanda playing methods such as left-hind octave fills, right-hand echo decoration, and encircled decoration.

2015, Dawei Zheng, Control, Mechatronics and Automation Technology, →ISBN:

bass fill

(music) A short passage, riff, or rhythmic sound that helps to keep the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody.


fifer

From fife + -er. Piecewise doublet of piper.


curl

From metathesis of Middle English crulle (“curled, curly”), from Middle Dutch crul, crulle (“curl”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *kruzlǭ (“bent or crooked object, curl”), of unknown origin; possibly from Pre-Germanic *grus-, contracted from Proto-Indo-European *gurus- (“twist, curl”), same source as Persian گرس (gors, “braid of hair”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Krulle (“curl, lock”), West Frisian krul (“curl”), Dutch krul (“curl”), German Low German Krull (“curl”), dialectal German Krolle (“curl”), Danish krølle (“curl”), Norwegian krull (“curl”). Related also to Saterland Frisian Kruus (“curl”), German kraus (“frizzy, crumpled, curly”), Danish krus (“curl”), Swedish krusa (“to crimp, curl”). Compare also Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (kriustan, “to grind, crush, gnash”).

unk

unknown

cog

The one-piece back is of a medium curl.

(music, chiefly lutherie) The contrasting light and dark figure seen in wood used for stringed instrument making; the flame.

loimukuvio

music: light and dark figure seen in wood


bebop

Alteration of earlier rebop, nonsense syllables used in scat singing in the 1940s. Compare doo be doo be doo, doo-wop, etc.

(music) An early form of modern jazz played by small groups and featuring driving rhythms and complex, often dissonant harmonies.


crump

And there was another bit [of a hymn]: ‘To an inheritance incorruptible. … Through faith unto salvation, Ready to be revealèd at the last trump.’ For ‘trump’ we always used to sing ‘crump.’ ‘The last crump’ was the end of the war and would we ever hear it burst safely behind us?

1929 November, Robert Graves, chapter XVIII, in Good-bye to All That: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 251:

Crump, crack! A shell exploded near them and the whole aircraft yawned to port as if somebody had punched it through the sky.

1999, Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum:

Above this grey skyline slowly lifting clouds of dirty smoke rose into the morning air as the salvoes of Japanese shells exploded with a delayed crump.

2000, Richard Woodman, The Darkening Sea:

"Now you can see what life is like for us here," said Yakov Shoshani, raising his voice to make himself heard over the sound of a loud crump.

2008, Paul Wood, BBC News., Taking cover on Sderot front line:


crump

en-verb

crump (third-person singular simple present crumps, present participle crumping, simple past and past participle crumped)

crumps (present singular third-person)
crumping (participle present)
crumped (participle past)
crumped (past)

“Mortars crumped, and from the high ground to the east and south came the shriek of 88-millimeter shells, green fireballs that whizzed through the dunes at half a mile a second, trailing golden plumes of dust.”

2007 September 28, William Grimes, “In Middle Leg of the Race, the Prize Was Italy”, in New York Times:


crump

en-adj

crump (comparative more crump, superlative most crump)

more crump (comparative)
most crump (superlative)

a crump loaf

(UK, Scotland, dialect) Hard or crusty; dry baked


crump

From Middle English crump, cromp, croume, from Old English crump, crumb (“stooping, bent, crooked”), from Proto-West Germanic *krump, from Proto-Germanic *krumpaz, *krumbaz (“bent”).
Compare Dutch krom (“bent”), German krumm (“crooked”), Danish krum. Related to cramp.

inh

Crooked backs and crump shoulders.

1701, John Gauden (attributed), Several Letters between Two Ladies Wherein the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of Artificial Beauty in Point of Conscience are Nicely Debated:


decay

en-verb

decay (third-person singular simple present decays, present participle decaying, simple past and past participle decayed)

decays (present singular third-person)
decaying (participle present)
decayed (participle past)
decayed (past)

From Middle English decayen, dekeyen (“to decrease, diminish”), from Anglo-Norman decaeir (“to fall away, decay, decline”), from Vulgar Latin *dēcadere, etymologically restored form of Latin dēcidere (“to fall away, fail, sink, perish”), from de (“down”) + cadere (“to fall”). Compare decadent and decadence.

der

Uranium decays to radium through a long series of steps with a cumulative half-life of 4.4 billion years.

2005, Encyclopedia of Earth Science, edited by Timothy M. Kusky, →ISBN, page 349:

(intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay.

desintegrar-se

To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons.


barre

Borrowed from French barre. Doublet of bar.


barre

en-verb

barre (third-person singular simple present barres, present participle barring, simple past and past participle barred)

barres (present singular third-person)
barring (participle present)
barred (participle past)
barred (past)

(music) To form a barre chord on an instrument.


emo

en-noun

emo (countable and uncountable, plural emos)

(uncountable, music) A particular style of hardcore punk rock

(uncountable, music) Any form of guitar-driven alternative rock that is particularly or notably emotional


bole

bole (countable and uncountable, plural boles)

From Ancient Greek βῶλος (bôlos, “clod or lump of earth”): compare French bol. Doublet of bolus.

bor

bole:

The shade of reddish brown which resembles this clay.


cerise

en-adj

cerise (comparative more cerise, superlative most cerise)

more cerise (comparative)
most cerise (superlative)

Borrowed from French cerise (mid 19th century), itself from Vulgar Latin ceresia, from Latin cerasium. Doublet of cherry and kirsch.

(of textiles, especially silk) Cherry-colored; a light bright red.


elegy

From Middle French elegie, from Latin elegīa, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐλεγείᾱ (elegeíā), ellipsis of ἐλεγείᾱ ᾠδή (elegeíā ōidḗ, “an elegiac song”).

requiem

a piece of music played at a mass for the dead

(music) A composition of mournful character.


fife

From German Pfeife (“whistle, smoking pipe”). Doublet of pipe.

A small shrill pipe, resembling the piccolo flute, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music


fife

en-verb

fife (third-person singular simple present fifes, present participle fifing, simple past and past participle fifed)

fifes (present singular third-person)
fifing (participle present)
fifed (participle past)
fifed (past)


fife

“Change course to two fife zero and reduce height to fifteen hundred feet.” That “fife,” thought Alan, sounded very affected; but it had a good survival value in a noisy background.

1963, Arthur C Clarke, chapter 6, in Glidepath, New York: Simon and Schuster, page 66:

Used instead of five in radio communications, especially NATO and ICAO, to avoid confusion with fire.


duff

en-noun

duff (countable and uncountable, plural duffs)

Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).

der

Coal dust, especially that left after screening or combined with other small, unsaleable bits of coal.


flange

From dialectal English flange (“to project”), flanch (“a projection”), from Middle French flanche, from Old French flanche (“flank, side”), from Frankish *hlanka, from Proto-Germanic *hlankō (“bend, curve; side, flank”). See flank. As a term for a group of baboons, it was popularized in the comedy TV series Not the Nine O'Clock News.

The electronic sound distortion produced by a flanger.


flange

en-verb

flange (third-person singular simple present flanges, present participle flanging, simple past and past participle flanged)

flanges (present singular third-person)
flanging (participle present)
flanged (participle past)
flanged (past)

(transitive, sound engineering) To mix two copies of together, one delayed by a very short, slowly varying time.


ganger

From Middle English ganger, from Old English gangere (“a ganger, footman”), equivalent to gang + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gunger, West Frisian gonger, Dutch ganger, German Gänger, Danish gjænger, ganger, Swedish gängare, Icelandic gangari.

inh

(nautical) A length of chain, one end of which is fastened to an anchor when let go, when the other end is fastened to a hawser.


lowboy

Possibly from low + French bois (“wood”).

(music) A precursor to the hi-hat drum, with a pair of cymbals low to the ground that are struck with a foot pedal.


chuff

en-adj

chuff (comparative more chuff, superlative most chuff)

more chuff (comparative)
most chuff (superlative)

15th century, dialectal, from Middle English chuffe (“a rustic, boor”), in noun sense “stupid fellow”. Adjective sense “surly, displeased” from 1832.

inh

such chuff Fellows , who would not willingly allow their Children any Pleasures

1728, Francis Gentleman, A Trip to the Moon, page 196:

Says Paddy , “the old one, faith, looks very chuff, though, But loves that big blackguard, I mean Lundy snuff, though;

The chuff old Joe to vex has come, The Doctor—who but he?—Parnell, and all the Irish scum, Have noisy vowed to be.

1878 January 24, “The Song of Big Ben”, in Truth, volume 3, page 114:

Neville Custance is a very chuff Boy indeed as I ever saw, seem displeased & cross with every thing - would not eat a bit of Cake when brought to him.

1978, James Woodforde, edited by John Beresford, The Diary of a Country Parson, 1758-1802, page 387:

(UK, dialect) stupid; churlish; loutish.


chuff

en-noun

chuff (countable and uncountable, plural chuffs)

A breathy noise produced by a tiger, similar in function to a cat's purr.


chuff

1520s, in sense “swollen with fat”; circa 1860, British dialect, in sense “pleased”. Possibly related to “coarse, stupid, fat-headed” sense (see etymology 1 above). Or, perhaps a euphemistic alteration of fuck or another expletive.


isomer

(nuclear physics) Any of two or more atomic nuclei with the same mass number and atomic number but with different radioactive properties.


idyll

From Latin īdyllium, from Ancient Greek εἰδύλλιον (eidúllion), from diminutive of εἶδος (eîdos, “form, shape”).

(music) A composition, usually instrumental, of a pastoral or sentimental character, e.g. Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner.


blush

blush (countable and uncountable, plural blushes)

From Middle English blusshen, bluschen, blusschen, blisshen, from Old English blysċan (“to be red; shine”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *blaskijaną, from *blasǭ (“burning candle; torch”) or alternatively from Proto-Germanic *bluskijaną, from *blusjǭ (“torch”). Cognate with Middle Low German blöschen (“to blush”). Compare also Old English blysian (“to burn; blaze”), Dutch blozen (“to blush”), Danish blusse (“to blush”), Old Norse blys (“torch”), Danish blus (“blaze”).

inh

And now the rosy blush of morn began to mantle in the east, and soon the rising sun, emerging from amidst golden and purple clouds, shed his blithesome rays on the tin weathercocks of Communipaw.

1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC:

Each painting consists of a white aluminum disk, sprayed at the edges with a subtle blush of blue, pink or grey.

1968 August 10, “Light on Light”, in Time:

A glow; a flush of colour, especially pink or red.


juke

From Gullah juke, jook, joog (“wicked, disorderly”) (compare Wolof and Bambara dzug (“unsavory”)).

All Kouichi Furutono wanted to do was expose Japanese audiences to the skittering sounds of Chicago juke music.

2018 October 5, Patrick St. Michel, “The Inventive World of Japan’s Juke and Footwork Scene”, in Bandcamp Daily:

(uncountable, music) A genre of electronic music native to Chicago, noted for its fast, abstract rhythms; see footwork.


litmus

en-noun

litmus (countable and uncountable, plural litmuses)

From Middle English litmose, lytmose, litemose, from Old Norse litmosi (“moss used for dyeing”), from lita (“to dye, stain”) + mosi (“moss”), the former from litr (“colour, dye, blee”), from Proto-Germanic *wlitiz, *wlituz (“appearance, blee”), from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to see”). Cognate with Old English wlite (“appearance, form, brightness, countenance”). More at moss.

cog

(uncountable) A dyestuff extracted from certain lichens, that changes color when exposed to pH levels greater than or less than certain critical levels.

A simple test of acidity in a liquid using litmus, usually in the form of litmus paper.

A simple test of any attribute; a litmus test.


dynamo

A shortening of dynamo-electric machine. The element dynamo- is ultimately from Ancient Greek δύναμις (dúnamis, “power”).

uder

dynamo-electric machine
dynamo-electric machine

(electromagnetism) An electricity generator; a dynamo-electric machine.


gnarl

Something resembling a knot in wood, such as in stone or limbs.


gnarl

en-verb

gnarl (third-person singular simple present gnarls, present participle gnarling, simple past and past participle gnarled)

gnarls (present singular third-person)
gnarling (participle present)
gnarled (participle past)
gnarled (past)

And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first.

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

(intransitive) To snarl or growl; to gnar.


jig

Unknown. Derivation from Middle English gyge (“fiddle”), from Old French gigue (“a fiddle”) has been proposed, but the connection and sense development are obscure. The sense “a type of dance” of modern French gigue is borrowed from English.

(music) A light, brisk musical movement; a gigue.


phon

(acoustics) A unit of apparent loudness, equal in number to the intensity in decibels of a 1,000-hertz tone judged to be as loud as the sound being measured.


boo

boo (third-person singular simple present boos, present participle booing, simple past and past participle booed)

boos (present singular third-person)
booing (participle present)
booed (participle past)
booed (past)

From earlier (15c.) boh, coined to create a loud and startling sound. Compare Middle English bus! (“bang!”, interjection), Latin boō (“cry aloud, roar, shout”, verb), Ancient Greek βοάω (boáō, “shout”, verb).

onomatopoeic

startling

noncog

When he took the podium, the crowd booed.

Nobody booed and nobody clapped

Substitute Charlie Austin scored seven minutes into his Southampton debut as a lacklustre Manchester United were booed off at Old Trafford.

2016 January 23, Phil Dakwes, “Man Utd 0–1 Southampton”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), BBC Sport:

(intransitive) To shout extended boos derisively.

The protesters loudly booed the visiting senator.

(transitive) To shout extended boos at, as a form of derision.


boo

Of unknown origin. First appears c. 1959 in Esquire Magazine.

[…] sexually promiscuous girl who smoked boo all day and socialized with junkies when she wasn't busy banging away in bed […]

1967, George E. Andrews, Simon Vinkenoog, The Book of Grass: An Anthology on Indian Hemp, page 213:

Like I have smoked boo, drunk whiskey, and shot dope, and I was going through all three bags at once.

1984, Raphael S. Ezekiel, Voices from the corner: poverty and racism in the inner city, page 56:

Grandpa doesn't want Grandma and their kids and grandkids to know that he had to get penicillin shots all the time, or that he smoked boo (marijuana) on a daily basis, or that he dealt in the black market, or that he had yobos (purchased live-in sex slaves).

2019, Ron Cook, On Guard in the General's Chorus, page 2:


boo

The cow's tether is put about the neck of the individual who has lost the cow, and he must go about booing like a cow till atonement is made.

1850, “The Missionary Herald”, in The Baptist Magazine, volume 42:

In the north of England people very often speak about the "oxen booing" (not lowing)

1894, Emily Seytter, “Barnyard Voices”, in Our Animal Friends: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 21:

I remember being in the Great Nut Walk and hearing Old Nettle 'booing' like a cow outside .

1987, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl:

(now rare, Northern England, intransitive) To make a sound characteristic of cattle; to moo.


boo

(transitive, intransitive, childish, US) To boo-boo, to poo: to defecate.


motif

From French motif (1848), with the meaning of "main idea or theme". Doublet of motive.

(music) A short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated in several parts of a work.

мотив

music: short melodic passage that is repeated in several parts of a work


octane

(organic chemistry) Any of the eighteen isomeric aliphatic hydrocarbons (C₈H₁₈) found in petroleum, especially an iso-octane 2,2,4 trimethyl-pentane; they are used as fuels and solvents.


baton

(music) The stick of a conductor in musical performances.


klaxon

en-verb

klaxon (third-person singular simple present klaxons, present participle klaxoning, simple past and past participle klaxoned)

klaxons (present singular third-person)
klaxoning (participle present)
klaxoned (participle past)
klaxoned (past)

Chilton Company
D. C. Heath and Company
Miller Reese Hutchison
United States Navy

A dive alert, or klaxon, aboard a World War II United States Navy submarine
From the trademark Klaxon, based on Ancient Greek κλάζω (klázō, “make a sharp sound; scream”) (from Proto-Indo-European *glag- (“to make a noise, clap, twitter”), from *gal- (“to roop, scream, shout”)). The word was coined by Franklyn Hallett Lovell Jr., the founder of the Lovell-McConnell Manufacturing Co. of Newark, New Jersey, USA, which in 1908 obtained a licence of the patent to the machine generating the sound from American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944).

refn

From Arthur W[illiam] Dunn (1920) “Why We Have Government”, in Harold W. Foght, editor, Community Civics and Rural Life (Rural Education Series), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: D. C. Heath and Company, →OCLC, page 46.

der

He headed down the Embankment. It was noon precisely. Big Ben klaxoned the hour with blasts of servo whistle.

1980, John Domatilla [pseudonym; Ian Kennedy Martin], The Last Crime, London: Heinemann, →ISBN; republished [Morrisville, N.C.?]: Lulu Press, 2012, →ISBN, page 50:

Suffering. It was like a great discordant symphony ringing out from the world; like a klaxoning of a million million cracked bells.

2005 January, John Shirley, chapter 16, in Constantine: A Novelization [...] Based on Characters from the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer Graphic Novels, Pocket Books paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Star Books, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 252:

Century stops before an eel-ship, coiled in jewel-skinned splendor. Its great eye-ports are open, and Century signals with a hand; the eel extends a proboscis lined with diamond mesh and graphene plates like a ramp. Century leads Mere into the eel's body. Alarms klaxon in Mere's head—its escape is known.

2015 December, A. Merc Rustad, “Tomorrow When We See the Sun”, in John Joseph Adams, editor, Lightspeed, number 67, archived from the original on 2017-08-15, section II; reprinted in John Joseph Adams, editor, Cosmic Powers: The Saga Anthology of Far-away Galaxies, New York, N.Y.: Saga Press, Simon & Schuster, 2017, →ISBN, pages 187–188:

(intransitive) To produce a loud, siren-like wail.


oboe

An earlier form in English is hautboy, but the spelling oboe was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of haut (“high, loud, high-pitched”) and bois (“wood, woodwind”).

(music) A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.


quasar

Blend of quasi- + stellar, from quasi-stellar radio source. Coined by American astrophysicist Hong-Yee Chiu in 1964 in an article in Physics Today. Analyzable as quasi- + -ar.

coin

(astronomy) An extragalactic object, starlike in appearance, that is among the most luminous and (putatively) the most distant objects in the universe.


canto

From Italian canto (“song”). Doublet of chant.

(music) The designated division of a song.


talkie

Clipping of talking picture, via + -ie, and thus morphologically parallel with movie.

"[Love] Jones," [named after] a slang expression for addiction, was a string-infested talkie-thing that surprised many folks when it mounted for the upper reaches of Billboard’s pop charts.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 292:

(dated or historical) A song in which the lyrics are spoken rather than sung.


tooter

"Gimme the tooter." Dan took the tin dinner-horn, but paused before he blew.

1897, Rudyard Kipling, chapter 8, in Captains Courageous:

A person or device that toots; a pipe or horn, or the person who plays it.


uranyl

en-noun

uranyl (countable and uncountable, plural uranyls)

(chemistry) The divalent radical UO₂²⁺, conveniently regarded as a residue of many uranium compounds.


opera

opera (countable and uncountable, plural operas or opere)

Borrowed from Italian opera. Doublet of oeuvre, opus, and ure.

(music) A theatrical work, combining drama, music, song and sometimes dance.

(music) The genre of such works, the art of composing operas.


peal

From Middle English pele, peil, probably an apheretic variant of Middle English apel, appel, from Old French apel (“an appeal; pealing of bells”). Compare appeal.

der

Whether thoſe peales of praiſe be his or no.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 174, column 2:

a fair peal of artillery

a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC:

and the deep thunder, peal on peal, afar

1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: Printed for John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza XXV:

Mrs. Green burst out into one of those peals so peculiarly British.

1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XVI, in Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 112:

And, falling on a bench, he laughed until the tears ran down his cheeks, I could not help joining; and we laughed together, peal after peal[…]

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

And she has half a mind to weep again now, for Jack Brotherhood, as the front doorbell sounds through the house like a bugle call, three short peals as ever.

A loud sound, or a succession of loud sounds, as of bells, thunder, cannon, shouts, laughter, of a multitude, etc.


onyx

From Middle English onix (c. 1300), earlier oniche (c. 1250), from Old French oniche or onix, from Latin onyx, from Ancient Greek ὄνυξ (ónux, “onyx”). Doublet of unguis.

And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

There was no moon, only stars set brilliantly in the soft black onyx of the sky : a black night and very silent on Cimiez ; and a black and silent prospect from the verandah […]

1922, Michael Arlen, “3/7/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:


rondo

en-noun

rondo (countable and uncountable, plural rondos)

Borrowed from Italian rondo, from French rondeau. Doublet of rondeau.

(music, countable) A musical composition, commonly of a lively, cheerful character, in which the first strain recurs after each of the other strains.


oblique motion

oblique motion (countable and uncountable, plural oblique motions)

(music) A kind of motion or progression in which one part ascends or descends, while the other prolongs or repeats the same tone.


sough

en-verb

sough (third-person singular simple present soughs, present participle soughing, simple past and past participle soughed)

soughs (present singular third-person)
soughing (participle present)
soughed (participle past)
soughed (past)

From Middle English *sough, swough, swogh, from Middle English swoȝen, swowen, from Old English swōgan (“to make a sound; move with noise; rush; roar”), from Proto-West Germanic *swōgan, from Proto-Germanic *swōganą from Proto-Indo-European *(s)weh₂gʰ-, same source as Latin vāgiō and likely English echo (via Ancient Greek). Cognate with Scots souch (“sough”), Icelandic súgur (“a rushing sound, rustle”). Noun replaced Middle English swei, sweȝ from Old English swēg. More at swoon.

cog

I lay awake for a while that evening, listening to the soughing of the wind high in the pines, realizing sadly that we must now return to civilization.

1963, Sterling North, Rascal, Avon Books, page 101:

To make a soft rustling or murmuring sound.


sough

[...] Arthur; a fearful night it was: there was a sough in the air, a sound drawing nigh like that of a host marching:- — but you're looking pale and forwrought, man; is any thing ailing ye?

1829, John Carne, Stratton Hill: A Tale of the Civil Wars, volume 1, page 131:

The whispering leaves or solemn sough of the forest.

1838, William Howitt, The Rural Life of England:

Syenite hears the distant sough of waves rolling against rocks, somewhere below the slope on which they lie.

2015, N. K. Jemisin, chapter 16, in The Fifth Season:

A murmuring sound; rushing, rustling, or whistling sound.

(Scotland, obsolete) A cant or whining mode of speaking, especially in preaching or praying.


mew

en-verb

mew (third-person singular simple present mews, present participle mewing, simple past and past participle mewed)

mews (present singular third-person)
mewing (participle present)
mewed (participle past)
mewed (past)

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

(of a cat, especially of a kitten) To meow.


moll

From German Moll, from Latin mollis (“soft, tender, elegiac”). Compare molle (“flat (in music)”).
Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål moll.

Bach's Gavotte in B Moll

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(music, obsolete) minor; in the minor key.


paean

Brill
Charles Scribner's Sons
National Roman Museum
Phidias

From Latin paeān (“a hymn, especially a victory hymn, to Apollo or another god”), from Ancient Greek παιᾱ́ν (paiā́n, “a chant or song, especially a thanksgiving or victory hymn, to Apollo under the name Παιᾱ́ν (Paiā́n)”), from the phrase Ἰὼ Παιᾱ́ν (Iṑ Paiā́n, “O Paean!, Thanks to Paean!”). According to Homer, Paián or Paean was the name of the physician of the gods; its further etymology is unclear. It has been suggested that Παιᾱ́ν is derived from *παιάϝων (*paiáwōn, “one who heals illnesses through magic”), from *παῖϝα (*paîwa), *παϝία (*pawía, “to blow”), related to παίω (paíō, “to hit, strike”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pēu-, *pyu-, *pū- (“to hit; to cut”)), or from παύω (paúō, “to bring to an end; to abate, to stop”) (from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, little; smallness”)), or that it may be a Pre-Greek word.
Compare Middle French and French paean (also French péan), Italian peana, Portuguese peã, péan.

der

a chant or song, especially a thanksgiving or victory hymn, to Apollo under the name <i class="Polyt mention" lang="grc">Παιᾱ́ν</i> (Paiā́n)

cog

In the mean time I am going to that part, whence I think it convenient for the battle to begin; and, as I paſs, ſhall consider how things are with reſpect to ourſelves. When I come there, and we are juſt ready to engage, I ſhall begin the Pœan;^([sic]) and do you follow.

1773, W[illiam] Cooke, “The Life of Cyrus the Great”, in The Way to the Temple of True Honor and Fame by the Paths of Heroic Virtue: Exemplified in the Most Entertaining Lives of the Most Eminent Persons of both Sexes: On the Plain Laid down by Sir William Temple in His Essay of Heroic Virtue. In Four Volumes, volume II, Devizes, Wiltshire: Printed and sold by T. Burrough, bookseller; sold also by L[ockyer] Davis, over against Gray's-Inn-Gate, Holbourn, London, →OCLC, page 64:

Oh, happy ſoldier! had thy worth been try'd, / In pious daring, on thy country's ſide! / Oh, had thy ſword Iberian battles known, / Or purple with Cantabrian ſlaughter grown; / How had thy name in deathleſs annals ſhone! / But now no Roman Pæan ſhalt thou ſing, / Nor peaceful triumphs to thy country bring, / […] Oh, hapleſs victor thou! oh, vainly brave! / How haſt thou fought, to make thyſelf a ſlave!

1795, Lucan, “The Pharsalia of Lucan”, in Nicholas Rowe, transl., The Works of the British Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Robert Anderson, M.D., volume XII, London: Printed for John & Arthur Arch; and for Bell & Bradfute, and J. Mundell & Co. Edinburgh, →OCLC, book VI, page 797, column 1:

The pæans were songs, of which the tune and words expressed courage and confidence. […] Pæans were sung, not only when there was a hope of being able, by the help of the gods, to overcome a great and imminent danger, but when the danger was happily past; they were songs of hope and confidence as well as of thanksgiving for victory and safety.

1847, K[arl] O[tfried] Müller, “Earliest Popular Songs”, in George Cornwall [i.e., Cornewall] Lewis, transl., History of the Literature of Ancient Greece, to the Period of Isocrates. Translated from the German Ms. of K. O. Müller, Professor in the University of Gottingen (Library of Useful Knowledge), new corr. edition, London: Robert Baldwin, 47, Paternoster Row [published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge], →OCLC, pages 19–20:

(Ancient Greece, historical) A chant or song, especially a hymn of thanksgiving for deliverance or victory, to Apollo or sometimes another god or goddess; hence any song sung to solicit victory in battle.

The dissolution of this great Republic, and the probable failure of the mighty experiments in government of which it has been the theatre, will be a fine subject for political parties to illustrate their various prejudices. The upholders of despotism will sing pæans over its downfall—the lovers of liberty will mourn over what appears to be the stern condition of man, to run alternately the career of improvement and of degeneracy— […]

1833 February, “The Present Crisis in the United States”, in The Monthly Magazine, of Politics, Literature, and the Belles Lettres (New Series), volume XV, number LXXXVI, London: Published by Charles Tilt, 86, Fleet Street, →OCLC, page 209:

Long before they reached this place, which was situated at the other end of the village, they heard the pæan of May carolled by a hundred voices; and, on entering the area, they immediately joined in the chorus.

1841, “The Journey”, in The Life and Times of Dick Whittington; an Historical Romance, London: Hugh Cunningham, St. Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square; Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Stationers' Hall Court; Edinburgh: Bell & Bradfute; Dublin: John Cumming; Glasgow: D. Campbell, →OCLC, page 57:

But what tribute shall we bestow, what sacred pæan shall we raise over the tombs of those who dared, in the face of unrivalled power, and within the reach of majesty, to blow the blast of freedom throughout a subject continent?

1843, Dawes, “Intelligence Necessary to Perpetuate Independence”, in John E[py] Lovell, editor, The United States Speaker: A Copious Selection of Exercises in Elocution; consisting of Prose, Poetry, and Dialogue: Drawn Chiefly from the Most Approved Writers of Great Britain and America: Including a Variety of Pieces Suitable for Very Young Readers: Designed for the Use of Colleges and Schools, rev. and imp. stereotype edition, New Haven, Conn.: Published by S. Babcock, →OCLC, page 27:

Butler’s wife and co-frontperson Regine Chassagne was a one-woman party, bringing sartorial sparkle, snippets of stylised choreography, her helium soprano and Caribbean fiesta spirit to the performance, skipping through the crowd back to the second stage to dance away troubles on top of the piano as she sang Haiti, her bi-lingual paean to her homeland.

2022 September 6, Fiona Shepherd, “Music review: Arcade Fire, Hydro, Glasgow”, in The Scotsman:

(by extension) Any loud and joyous song; a song of triumph.

պեան

any loud and joyous song; a song of triumph

The barbarian, wandering in nature's wilds, plucking the fruits as they grow, or destroying the game for his meat, and quenching his thirst with the waters of the gurgling rill, may furnish the poet with a theme for a pean to the goddess of Natural Liberty; but he will be a barbarian still, and his children after him, will roam over the same uncultivated wastes, and sleep in the same caves and dens, until they learn to associate with others and combine their efforts for mutual good.

1843 February, I. D. W., “Association”, in James E. Ridgely, editor, The Covenant and Official Magazine of the Grand Lodge of the United States, I[ndependent] O[rder of] O[dd] F[ellows]: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to the Cause of Odd Fellowship, volume II, number 2, →OCLC, page 68:

Unlike other accounts, Eagles of the RAF is not simply a paean to the pilots as special heroes and "aces," though many performed heroically and some sacrificed their lives.

1991 August, J[ohn] A[shby] Baldwin[, Jr.], “Foreword”, in Philip D. Caine, Eagles of the RAF: The World War II Eagle Squadrons, Washington, D.C.: National Defense University Press, →OCLC, page ix

Mexico's ruling elites have long played up their supposed commitment to the nation's laboring masses. Article 123 of the 1917 Constitution promulgated the most advanced labor code of its time, and revolutionary rhetoric has always rung with paeans to labor.

1992, Edward J. Williams, John T. Passé-Smith, “The Maquiladora Workers: Attitudes and Activities”, in The Unionization of the Maquiladora Industry: The Tamaulipan Case in National Context, San Diego, Calif.: Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, San Diego State University, →ISBN, page 79:

Antimodern romanticism is not primarily a complaint about lost nature; it is mainly a pean to lost values. Modernity is relativistic, the existentialists complain; it has lost a sense of real values, true courage, meaningful integrity.

2007, Michael J. Mazarr, “The Existentialist Diagnosis”, in Unmodern Men in the Modern World: Radical Islam, Terrorism, and the War on Modernity, Cambridge, New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 81:

Veteran world travelers visiting Newport, Rhode Island, in the first years of the twentieth century were as impressed as neophytes by the sheer concentration of opulent summer villas ringing this old colonial seaport. Grand Duke Boris [Vladimirovich] of Russia's paean to the resort struck a characteristic chord: "I have never dreamed of such luxury as I have seen at Newport."

2008, Paul F. Miller, “Introduction”, in Lost Newport: Vanished Cottages of the Resort Era, Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books [in cooperation with The Preservation Society of Newport County], →ISBN, page 7:

(by extension) An enthusiastic expression of praise.


yip

Possibly from dialectal yip (“to cheep like a bird”), from Middle English ȝyppe, probably imitative.

I've never hunted myself, but I understand that half the battle is being able to make noises like some jungle animal with dyspepsia, and I believe that Aunt Dahlia in her prime could lift fellow-members of the Quorn and Pytchley out of their saddles with a single yip, though separated from them by two ploughed fields and a spinney.

1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:


yip

en-verb

yip (third-person singular simple present yips, present participle yipping, simple past and past participle yipped)

yips (present singular third-person)
yipping (participle present)
yipped (participle past)
yipped (past)

to bark with a sharp, high-pitched voice


patina

Borrowed from Italian patina, from Latin patina (“dish, pan”), itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē), either from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread”) or from Pre-Greek. Doublet of paten, patena, and patine.

der

Of a green colour, tinted with grey, like that of bronze patina.


mambo

en-noun

mambo (countable and uncountable, plural mambos or mamboes)

From Haitian Creole manbo (“voodoo priestess”) (ultimately from Yoruba mambo (“to talk”)), in later senses via Cuban Spanish mambo (“dance”).

der

A Latin-American musical genre, adapted from rumba, originating from Cuba in the 1940s, or a dance or rhythm of this genre.


scat

en-verb

scat (third-person singular simple present scats, present participle scatting, simple past and past participle scatted)

scats (present singular third-person)
scatting (participle present)
scatted (participle past)
scatted (past)

(music, jazz) To sing an improvised melodic solo using nonsense syllables, often onomatopoeic or imitative of musical instruments.


aleatory

From Latin āleātōrius, from āleātor (“dice-player”), from ālea (“a die”).

(art, music) Produced with an element of chance (aleatoricism).


purl

purl (third-person singular simple present purls, present participle purling, simple past and past participle purled)

purls (present singular third-person)
purling (participle present)
purled (participle past)
purled (past)

From Old Norse purla (“to babble”), possibly ultimately from an imitative Germanic base related to Dutch polder, Norwegian puldra (“to gush”) and pulla (“to bubble”), Old English polr (“marsh”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.

1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book XXI”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

There is a water-break formed by a small terrace of rock in mid-stream, and purling with a hollow, delicious monotone—an island of pebbles is above, with here and there smaller ones near the "forks."

1846 October, Alfred B[illings] Street, “A Day’s Hunting about the Mongaup”, in George R[ex] Graham, editor, Graham’s American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Art, volume XXIX, number 4, Philadelphia, Pa.: George R. Graham & Co., […], →OCLC, page 190:

At seven minutes past four, while a Bach sonata was purling under the din of the crowd, the President's reaching hand was struck aside, and a man lurched forward. Two shots cracked sharply. There was a moment of dead silence.

1959, Margaret Leech, “Appointment at Buffalo”, in In the Days of McKinley, New York: Harper & Brothers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 595:

[T]he road purled out ahead of us for miles, all prospect and promise, like the beginning of a long, good friendship.

2023 October 23, Murr Brewster, “Grizzlies and caribou and wolves, oh my! Savoring Denali’s delights.”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

(intransitive) To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.

ромоля

to make the sound of gently running water


purl

imitative

Whose streame an easie breath doth seeme to blowe; Which on the sparkling grauell runns in purles, / As though the waues had been of siluer curles

1591–1619, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the page)”, in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Poems by Michael Drayton. […], London: […] J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […] [for the Roxburghe Club], published 1856, →OCLC:

Whatsoever had a beginning, can also have an ending; and it shall die, unless it be daily watered with the purls flowing from the fountain of life, and refreshed with the dew of heaven, and the wells of God: […]

1668, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-seven Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Summer Half-year, […]: Sermon VIII. A Funeral Sermon, &c.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume VI, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 453:

A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.

the purl of a brook

A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.


yammer

en-verb

yammer (third-person singular simple present yammers, present participle yammering, simple past and past participle yammered)

yammers (present singular third-person)
yammering (participle present)
yammered (participle past)
yammered (past)

From Middle English ȝameren, ȝaumeren, yemeren, ȝomeren, from Old English ġeōmrian (“to lament”), from Proto-West Germanic *jāmarōn, from Proto-Germanic *jēmarōną (“to show misery or sadness”), from Proto-Germanic *jēmaraz (“miserable, sorrowful, sad”), from Proto-Indo-European *yem- (“to hold, match, defeat”). Reinforced by cognate Middle Dutch jammeren (modern Dutch jammeren), from the same ultimate origin. Cognate also with Scots yammer, Saterland Frisian jammerje, West Frisian jammerje, German Low German jammern, German jammern, Danish jamre, Norwegian jamre. Compare also Old Norse amra (“to howl, wail, yammer”).

cog

(transitive) To repeat on and on, usually loudly or in complaint.

ismételget

to repeat on and on, usually loudly or in complaint

It was a ship, but a whale to the Dark Nebula’s minnow; and on its side was the Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire. Every alarm on the ship yammered hysterically.

1951, Isaac Asimov, ““The Merchant Princes”, chapter 17”, in Foundation, part V, Panther Books Ltd, published 1974, page 182:

(intransitive, rare) To make an outcry; to clamor.


yammer

The ungodly scream of Jap wings in the wind, and the blood-chilling snarl and yammer of their aerial machine gun and aerial cannon fire was enough to make the very ground shake and tremble.

1943, R. Sidney Bown, chapter 12, in Dave Dawson with the Flying Tigers, Akron, Ohio: Saalfield Publishing Company:


umber

en-noun

umber (countable and uncountable, plural umbers)

From Middle French ombre (“umber”), from terre d'ombre (“dark ochre”), from Old French umbre (“shade, shadow”), from Latin umbra. Doublet of umbra.

umber:

I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
And with a kind of umber smirch my face;
The like do you; so shall we pass along,
And never stir assailants.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], lines 518-21:

A brown clay, somewhat darker than ochre, which contains iron and manganese oxides.


thrum

onomatopoeic

Imitative

This doesn’t detract from the fun of bargaining at the variety of Hong Kong’s night markets (those who don’t like to haggle should stay away) that often thrum with shoppers till midnight. The best in town are the Ladies’ Market, for inexpensive women’s clothing, bags, and accessories, and the Temple Street Night Market, for an astonishing selection of everything from clothes and CDs to luggage and shoes—even fortune tellers—at the Yau Ma Tei end of the street.

2011, Patricia Schultz, “Hong Kong”, in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, 2nd edition, Workman Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 489, column 2:

a profusion of insects, which produced a continuous thrum

2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian:

Pungent sweat and heatedly trodden grass, fumes of tea and porter, thrum of hooves from the paddock, the strikings-up and dyings-down of the band all fused into an extreme for Antonia, whose own senses, boatful, stood up to it.

1955, Elizabeth Bowen, chapter 2, in A World of Love:


chime

From Middle English chime, chim, chimbe, chymbe, a shortening of chimbelle (misinterpreted as chymme-belle, chimbe-belle), from Old English ċimbala, ċimbal (“cymbal”), from Latin cymbalum.

Hugo had a recording of someone playing the chimes against a background of surf noise that she found calming.

Sylvia was a chime player in the school orchestra.

(music) A musical instrument producing a sound when struck, similar to a bell (e.g. a tubular metal bar) or actually a bell. Often used in the plural to refer to the set: the chimes.


chime

en-verb

chime (third-person singular simple present chimes, present participle chiming, simple past and past participle chimed)

chimes (present singular third-person)
chiming (participle present)
chimed (participle past)
chimed (past)

It shall not keep one settled pace of time,
In the same tune it shall not always chime

a. 1667, Abraham Cowley, Ode Upon Liberty:

To make a rude correspondence of sounds; to jingle, as in rhyming.


compound

From Middle English compounen, from Middle French componre, compondre (“to put together”), from Latin componō, from Latin com- (“together”) + ponō (“to put”).

(music) An octave higher than originally (i.e. a compound major second is equivalent to a major ninth).


labial

Borrowing from Medieval Latin labiālis (“of or pertaining to the lips”), from labium (“a lip”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix); equivalent to labium + -al.

af

a labial organ pipe


labial

All organ pipes are divided into two general classes, labial and lingual pipes. The main difference between the two classes is the manner by which the vibrations producing the sound are caused. In labial pipes the column of air entering the pipe under pressure is set in vibration by a fixed obstruction at the mount of the pipe. […] [T]he obstruction at the mouth […] causes the column of air to vibrate. In the lingual or reed pipe, the vibrations are caused by the air passing through a metal reed, which causes the tongue of the reed to vibrate, thereby setting up sympathetic vibrations in the column of air in the pipe.

1923, Estey Organ Company, The Philosophy of an Organ Builder, Brattleboro, VT, pages 34–35:

(music) An organ pipe having a lip that influences its sound.


clang

1570, of imitative origin; Compare also Saterland Frisian Kloang, West Frisian klank, Dutch klank, German Klang (from klingen), Danish and Swedish klang, Latin clangere.

Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head
Clang, clang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead

1969, Paul McCartney (lyrics and music), “Maxwell's Silver Hammer”, in Abbey Road, performed by The Beatles:

A loud, ringing sound, like that made by free-hanging metal objects striking each other.

The cry of some birds, including the crane and the goose.


clang

en-verb

clang (third-person singular simple present clangs, present participle clanging, simple past and past participle clanged)

clangs (present singular third-person)
clanging (participle present)
clanged (participle past)
clanged (past)

Middlesbrough will wonder whether it might have been different if the volley that Jelle Vossen slashed towards John Ruddy’s net after nine minutes had been a couple inches lower rather than clanging off the crossbar. They should not dwell on that moment too long, however.

2015 May 25, Daniel Taylor, “Norwich reach Premier League after early blitz sees off Middlesbrough”, in The Guardian (London):

A cell door clanged metallically and Wentworth was flung inside. He tripped, collapsed upon the concrete floor.

1933, Norvell Page, Wings of the Black Death:

The clanging and groaning of the train came nearer, and it staggered slowly into the station like a prey- laden monster into its lair.

1920, Edith Wharton, chapter XXIX, in The Age of Innocence:

Then the sparks flew from the anvil while the great hammer clanged on the metal, shaping it, and Henry begged to be allowed to try it

1917, Rose Wilder Lane, Henry Ford’s Own Story:

(intransitive) To give out a clang; to resound.


clang

Imitative of a loud metallic ringing sound.


beacon

From Middle English beken, from Old English bēacn (“sign, signal”), from Proto-West Germanic *baukn, from Proto-Germanic *baukną (compare West Frisian beaken (“buoy”), Dutch baken (“beacon”), Middle Low German bāke (“beacon, sign”), German Bake (“traffic sign”), Middle High German bouchen (“sign”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂u-, *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”).

emergency position indicating radio beacon


beacon

beacon (third-person singular simple present beacons, present participle beaconing, simple past and past participle beaconed)

beacons (present singular third-person)
beaconing (participle present)
beaconed (participle past)
beaconed (past)

That beacons the darkness of heaven.

1801, Thomas Campbell, Lochiel's Warning:

(transitive) To give light to, as a beacon; to light up; to illumine.


cater

From French quatre (“four”). Doublet of cuatro.

The very terms of the art are enough to frighten an amateur. Hunting, dodging... caters, cinques, etc.

1872, Henry Thomas Ellacombe, The Bells of Church, page 29:

Cater... The name given by change ringers to changes of nine bells. The word should probably be written quaters, as it is meant to denote the fact that four couples of bells change their places in the order of ringing.

1878, George Grove, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Cater":

(music) A method of ringing nine bells in four pairs with a ninth tenor bell.


disintegration

en-noun

disintegration (countable and uncountable, plural disintegrations)

/dɪsˌɪd.əˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən/

[dɪsˌɪn.əˈɡɹeɪ.ʃən]

From disintegrate + -ion or dis- + integration.

(nuclear physics) The process of radioactive decay.

The sample exhibited an activity of three disintegrations per second.

The process of radioactive decay.
The radioactive decay of a single atom.


wrest

en-verb

wrest (third-person singular simple present wrests, present participle wresting, simple past and past participle wrested)

wrests (present singular third-person)
wresting (participle present)
wrested (participle past)
wrested (past)

From Middle English wresten, wrasten, wræsten, from Old English wrǣstan (“to twist forcibly, wrench”), from Proto-Germanic *wraistijaną, (compare Proto-Germanic *wrīhaną (“to turn, wind; to cover, envelop”), *wrīþaną (“to weave, twist”), Old Norse reista (“to bend, twist”)), from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *wreiḱ-, *wreyḱ- (“to bend, twist”), *wreyt- (“to bend”). See also writhe, wry.
The noun is derived from the verb.

cog

The Harpe. A harpe geueth ſounde as it is ſette / The harper may wreſt it vntunablye

1503 July, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto St Dunstan-in-the-West by Thomas Marshe, published 1568, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:

(transitive, music) To tune with a wrest, or key.


wrest

The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunying of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

1503 July, William Cornishe [i.e., William Cornysh], “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe otherwise Called Nyshwhete Chapelman with the Most Famose and Noble Kyng Henry the VII. His Reygne the XIX. Yere the Moneth of July. A Treatise betwene Trouth, and Information.”, in John Skelton, edited by J[ohn] S[tow], Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, published 1568, →OCLC; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, →OCLC, page 290:

The Minstrel […] wore round his neck a silver chain, by which hung the wrest, or key, with which he tuned his harp.

1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XIII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 323:

(music) A key to tune a stringed instrument.


dun

From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto-Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”).
Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Brythonic (compare Middle Welsh dwnn (“dark (red)”)), from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (compare Old Irish donn and Scottish Gaelic donn (“brown”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (compare Old Saxon dosan (“chestnut brown”)). More at dusk.

cog

dun:


vamp

From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”).
Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4.
The verb senses were derived from the noun. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).

I would go even further and say that, once [Stephen] Sondheim had ceased to compose classical music with its nonspecific accompaniments, he began to explore how effectively a vamp can flesh out a character for the stage. He had little need to write distinctive vamps for his Williams [College] shows, but already in 1954—before the highly characteristic vamps in West Side Story—we see him growing in his ability to get under a character's skin through his accompaniment.

2005, Steve Swayne, “Pulling It Apart”, in How Sondheim Found His Sound, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 116:

On the mega-rave circuit, a pop hardcore sound gradually emerged, fusing the piano vamps and shrieking divas of 1989-era Italo house with Belgian hardcore's monster-riffs and Shut Up and Dance style breakbeats and rumblin' bass.

2012, Simon Reynolds, “’Ardcore, You Know the Score”, in Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Berkeley, Calif.: Soft Skull Press, →ISBN, page 119:

(music) A repeated and often improvised accompaniment, usually consisting of one or two measures, often a single chord or simple chord progression, repeated as necessary, for example, to accommodate dialogue or to anticipate the entrance of a soloist.