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Jew's harp
Definitions
- 1 A musical instrument consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo “tongue” attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note of constant pitch. Melodies can be created by changing the shape of the mouth and causing different overtones.
"The lad, his son, had obtained a Jew's-harp, and learned to play upon it the profane airs of "Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," "St. Patrick's Day," and "Auld Lang Syne.""
- 2 Alternative spelling of Jew's harp. alt-of, alternative
- 3 a small lyre-shaped musical instrument that is placed between the teeth and played by twanging a wire tongue while changing the shape of the mouth cavity wordnet
Etymology
The word harp is often applied to a wide variety of instruments in English, including many (such as this one) that are not "harps" in the most specific sense. The origin of Jew's is uncertain: it is widely accepted that the instrument has no musicological or etymological connection with Jews and the word was capitalized due to the mistaken belief in a connection. Some have connected it to the Cleveland dialectal gew-gaw, related to the Old Norse giga, compare modern Swedish giga, Danish gige, German Geige (“fiddle”). Others have suggested a connection with jaws, the synonym jaw harp may have therefore come first. Other theories point to French jeu-trompe (literally “toy-trumpet”), compare Jew's-trump.
See also for "jew's harp"
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