violin
English
Etymology
From Italian violino (“little viola”), from viola + -ino (“forming diminutives”).
Pronunciation
Noun
violin (plural violins)
- A small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin and played with a bow.
- When I play it like this, it's a fiddle; when I play it like this, it's a violin.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
- She was looking more like Sherlock Holmes than ever. Slap a dressing-gown on her and give her a violin, and she could have walked straight into Baker Street and no questions asked.
- (inexact, sometimes proscribed) Any instrument of the violin family, always inclusive of violins, violas, and cellos and sometimes further including the double bass.
- The string quartet, one of the most popular groupings in chamber music, is composed entirely of violins: two violins proper, one viola, and one cello.
- (music, metonymically) The position of a violinist in an orchestra or group.
Usage notes
The distinction between violins and fiddles is typically contextual and cultural. The same instrument is considered a violin when playing classical music in formal settings, a fiddle when playing folk or country music, and variously described in other settings (such as jazz and rock) depending whichever term seems more appropriate to the speaker.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
Translations
|
Verb
violin (third-person singular simple present violins, present participle violining, simple past and past participle violined)
- (transitive, intransitive) To play on, or as if on, a violin.
See also
Anagrams
Catalan
Verb
violin
- inflection of violar:
Danish
Etymology
From Italian violino, diminutive form of viola with diminutive suffix -ino.
Pronunciation
Noun
violin c (singular definite violinen, plural indefinite violiner)
Declension
common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | violin | violinen | violiner | violinerne |
genitive | violins | violinens | violiners | violinernes |
References
Piedmontese
Pronunciation
Noun
violin m (plural violin)
- English terms derived from Italian
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɪn
- Rhymes:English/ɪn/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English proscribed terms
- en:Music
- English metonyms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Musicians
- en:String instruments
- Catalan non-lemma forms
- Catalan verb forms
- Danish terms derived from Italian
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Danish/in
- Rhymes:Danish/in/3 syllables
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish common-gender nouns
- Piedmontese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Piedmontese lemmas
- Piedmontese nouns
- Piedmontese masculine nouns