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The riqq
Word of the week: An appropriately onomatopoeic noun for name for Middle Eastern tambourine, able to produce a range of percussive sounds, and commonly heard in traditional Egyptian, Arab, Greek and Turkish music
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The Ancient Greek salpinx
Word of the week: This very imposing, loud, resonant noun is an ancient Greek, trumpet-like instrument used as a tactical signal on the battle field, as well as to signal the beginnings of gatherings, or of races in sport
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The 1811 novella Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
Word of the week: It might sound like the act of abstaining from food, but this noun from derived from undina (Latin unda) meaning wave, refers to mythical, elemental beings associated with water, such as mermaids, and stemming from the alchemical writings of the 16th-century Swiss physician, alchemist and philosopher Paracelsus
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Veena players sit cross-legged on the floor, with the instrument resting diagonally across their laps
Word of the week: This ornate, curvaceous, south Indian classical instrument, the saraswati veena, is a special bowl lute with a rich, resonant tone, has 24 copper frets with four playing strings and three drone strings, and is used for Carnatic music
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Xiphias gladius or swordfish
Word of the week: Get the point? This is the scientific name for the swordfish, in full Xiphias gladius (from the Greek and Latin for sword), that extraordinary sea creature with the long, pointy bill. But what of it in song?
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Korean musicians in 1971 playing, from left to right, the gayageum, haegeum, yanggeum, and komungo/
Word of the week: A form or hammered dulcimer, this traditional Korean instrument, with a flat and trapezoidal shape, has seven sets of four metal strings hit by thin bamboo stick
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Zumbador dorado: Hispaniolan mango hummingbird of Puerto Rico
Word of the week: A wonderfully evocative noun from the Spanish for word buzz, and meaning both a South American hummingbird, a door buzzer, and symbolic of resurrection of the soul in ancient Mexican culture, while also serving as the logo for a tequila brand
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Kaufmann’s 19th-century Trumpet Player automaton inspected in 1950
Word of the week: It sounds like a bulbous, multi-layered peeling vegetable, but this obscure mechanical musical instrument invented in 1812 in Dresden consisted of 24 trumpets and two kettle drums and, designed to mimic the sound of a marching band, might also make your eyes water
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Crapulence creeps in … but will an egg really help?
Word of the week: A term that may apply regularly during Xmas party season, from the from the Latin crapula, in turn from the Greek kraipálē meaning "drunkenness" or "headache" pertains to sickness symptoms caused by excess in eating or drinking, or general intemperance and overindulgence
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Erythrophyll in autumn
Word of the week: A seasonally topical word relating to the the red pigment of tree leaves, fruits and flowers, that appears particularly when changing in autumn, as opposed to the green effect of chlorophyll, from the Greek erythros for red, and phyll for leaves. But what of songs about this?
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A horse of the isabelline hue
Word of the week: Regularly found on the feathers of birds of the flanks of horses, this is a common, if subtle, pale greyish-yellow colour, thought to rather shadily take its name from Isabella Clara Eugenia, the daughter of King Philip II of Spain from the early 17th century with a shoddy story ending
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A jipijapa weaver and seller in Montecristi, Ecuador
Word of the week: A tuneful, cheerful, jaunty sounding noun, both to say and wear, being the original name for the Panama hat, the palm tree from which it is made with dried, woven leaves, as well as a town in Ecuador, the country where such hats are originally made, and not, oddly, Panama – a handy fact to sport at any time
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Archive early 20th-century photographs of players of, clockwise from top left, the Lithuanian kanklės, followed by equivalents showing Latvian, Estonian, and Finnish folk musicians, all part of the Baltic psaltery family
Word of the week: A singular noun despite the last letter, this is a lap zither instrument of Lithuania, part of the Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery, along with the Latvian kokles, Estonian kannel, Finnish kantele, and Russian gusli, and with a name thought to originally mean ‘singing tree’.
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Bottles hanging on the wall …
Word of the week: It’s a colourful noun for an intoxicatingly visual subject, and in parallel relating to people who may be a labeorphilist or labeorphile, it refers to the enthusiasm for, and collection of beer bottle labels. But what’s the musical connection?
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A Mugwump in David Cronenberg’s film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ novel The Naked Lunch
Word of the week: This oddly evocative noun might summon in the mind some tactile, earthy image, or a strange childrens’ TV fictional character, but actually pertains to a person who is politically neutral, aloof, or independent, and in 19th-century America, described anti-corruption party switchers
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Holding the olecranon
Word of the week: This is the large, thick, curved bony area of the elbow that sticks out at the arm joint – the proximal, posterior end of the ulnar bone which, alongside the radius, is the lower arm, and marks the point of the ulnar nerve, or in other words – the funny bone
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Some girls’ wigs are bigger than other girls …
Word of the week: Taken from the French language, this appropriately ornate noun pertains to makers of perukes, wigs or hairpieces, a trade that has variously gone in and out of fashion over the centuries. But what about these hair pieces in song?
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Sheep are naturally ulotrichous
Word of the week: While it’s entirely natural in animals such as sheep as well as some humans, depending on an individual’s point of view it’s either a blessing or a curse. From Greek words oûlos (crisp, curly) and -trikhos (haired), this adjective means having curly or woolly hair
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A md-19th century illustration of the varsovienne
Word of the week: Our latest etymological move into obscurity originates in around 1850 in Warsaw, Poland, and also known as the varsouvienne or varsoviana – a slow, graceful dance in 3/4 waltz time, which also combines elements of the mazurka and polka
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What stirs? A cup of withershins?
Word of the week: Also variously spelled widershins and widderschynnes, this Lowland Scots dialect word term derived from German means counter-clockwise, literally “against the way”, not only on a clock face, but originally against the perceived motion of the sun in the northern hemisphere
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