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Origin and history of violin

violin(n.)

the instrument is the modern form of the smaller medieval viola da braccio; the name is by 1570s in English, from Italian violino, diminutive of viola (see viola). Also compare viol.

also from 1570s

Entries linking to violin

viol(n.)

stringed musical instrument common 15c.-18c., essentially similar to a lute or guitar but played with a bow, c. 1500, vial, probably from Old French viole, viol, name of a stringed instrument like a fiddle, from Old Provençal viola, from Medieval Latin vitula (see viola), and compare fiddle (n.).

In Promptorium Parvulorum (mid-15c.) "to play the viol" is, in English, both fydelin and fyielyn. Violour, "one who plays the viol," is attested by late 12c. as a surname (Turstano le Violour).

viola(n.)

"tenor violin," 1797, from Italian viola, from Old Provençal viola, from Medieval Latin vitula "stringed instrument," perhaps from Vitula, Roman goddess of joy (see fiddle), or from related Latin verb vitulari "to exult, be joyful, celebrate a holiday," which is probably related to vivere "to live." Viola da gamba "bass viol" (1724) is from Italian, literally "a viola for the leg" (i.e. to hold between the legs).

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G-string
The spelling with G (1882) is perhaps from influence of violin string tuned to a G (in this sense G string is first recorded...1831), the lowest and heaviest of the violin strings....Donaldson, in "Songs of My Violin," 1901]...
clef
The most common is the treble, violin, or G-clef, which crosses on the second line of the staff, denoting that as the G above...
novel
A novel is like a bow; the body of the violin which gives the sounds, is the soul of the reader....
jig
Modern French gigue, Spanish giga, Italian giga, which preserve the "dance" sense, and German Geige, which preserves the "violin...
seventh
the given tone is sometimes called the natural seventh; it is sometimes used in vocal music, and on instruments, like the violin...
string
Middle English streng, from Old English streng "line, slender cord, thick thread," also a rope, also the string of a bow or harp, which tightly stretched produces the tone; in plural "tackle, rigging;" also "lineage, race." This is from Proto-Germanic *strangiz (source also of Ol
elegant
late 15c., "tastefully ornate," from Old French élégant (15c.) and directly from Latin elegantem (nominative elegans) "choice, fine, tasteful," collateral form of present participle of eligere "select with care, choose" (see election). Meaning "characterized by refined grace" is
explode
1530s (transitive), "to reject with scorn," from Latin explodere "drive out or off by clapping, hiss off, hoot off," originally theatrical, "to drive an actor off the stage by making noise," hence "drive out, reject, destroy the repute of" (a sense surviving in an exploded theory
brain
"soft, grayish mass filling the cranial cavity of a vertebrate," in the broadest sense, "organ of consciousness and the mind," Old English brægen "brain," from Proto-Germanic *bragnan (source also of Middle Low German bregen, Old Frisian and Dutch brein), a word of uncertain orig
galaxy
late 14c., from French galaxie or directly from Late Latin galaxias "the Milky Way" as a feature in the night sky (in classical Latin via lactea or circulus lacteus), from Greek galaxias (adj.), in galaxias kyklos, literally "milky circle," from gala (genitive galaktos) "milk" (f

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