noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
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"The best ear training is tuning a piano or harpsichord."
A stringed musical instrument with a keyboard, the mechanical precusor to the fortepiano, in which each key causes a plectrum to pluck a corresponding tuned string, producing a bright, sharp tone similar to that of a harp.
Common synonyms include: baby grand, baroque keyboard, cembalo, cembalo, clarichord, clavicembalo.
The best ear training is tuning a piano or harpsichord.
Pronounced /ˈhɑɹp.sɪˌkɔɹd/.
Early 1600s, borrowed from French harpechord (“harp string”), from New Latin harpichordium, from harpa (“harp”) + chorda (“string”). Influenced by and possibly also borrowed from Italian arpicordo, producing variant spellings. The unetymological -s-, which predominates by the 1660s, is of unclear origin.