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Pages 150-151 of Robert Recorde’s 1557 work The Whetstone of Witte describes the cubic term of zenzizenzizenzic
Word of the week: We return to the alphabet’s end with a word that’s as wonderfully weird, yet buzzily beautifully in sound as it is obscure and obsolete – an antiquated mathematical term meaning the eighth power of a number x, where x is multiplied by itself 8 times
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Callithumpian band
Word of the week: An evocative adjectival form of callithump, commonly used from 1836 in the American mid-West, describing a parade or band of noisemakers, but also originally an 18th-century British dialect noun for a group who made a rumpus on election days in southern England
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A selection of daxophone tongues
Word of the week: A uniquely versatile friction idiophone instrument that produces sound through the vibration of wooden slats played by finger touch and bow, producing an extraordinary range of animal and vocal-style noises, its name derived from the German word Dachs, meaning badger
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The ululation of the wolf …
Word of the week: The noun of the verb ululate, meaning to to deliver a high-pitched cry, or howl, very much like that of a wolf in the forest, though it can also be applied to the human voice
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Garrahands from garrahand.com
Word of the week: A modern instrument with a traditional sound, these handcrafted hand and stick percussion “gdrums” are made in Argentina using recycled materials, have a built-in microphone system which allows connection to amps and experimental effects pedals
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An 18th-century Bohemian nail violin
Word of the week: Invented in 1740 by German violinist Johann Wilde, this strangely beautiful sounding idiophone instrument consists of a semicircular wooden soundboard with vertical iron or brass nails that are then bowed to create a chromatic or diatonic scale
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The Suzuki Omnichord
Word of the week: Out latest instrument in the series is was first released in 1981 by Suzuki, including a touch plate called SonicStrings, preset rhythms, auto-bass line function, and sets of single buttons for playing major, minor, and 7th chords in different keys
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The ryuteki - dragon flute
Word of the week: Literally meaning ‘dragon flute’, the ryūteki (龍笛) is pure and beautiful sounding traditional Japanese bamboo flute (or ‘fue’) designed to evoke the mythical creature, used in Shinto classical music gagaku, associated with Japan's imperial court
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Necking it: the baroque theorbo, known to some as the giraffe of the lute world
Word of the week: Designed to emanate the music of the spheres, for opera, and also allow improvisation, this Baroque-era member of the lute family has has a hugely extended neck, second pegbox, large volume with ornate sound holes, and wide range with harmonic options
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Ethereal and otherworldly: the waterphone
Word of the week: Resonant, expressive, and eerily strange, this inharmonic idiophone instrument invented by Richard Waters in 1967 consists of a stainless steel resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck and bronze rods, played by hand, with soft mallets or a bow
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One of many visual impressions of the great early Renaissance satirist François Rabelais
Word of the Week: It’s a bewildering world, and this wonderful sounding evocative verb, attributed originally to translated François Rabelais from 1469, indeed means to confuse, and its four syllables trundle musically with a form of crash-bang rhythm
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William Shenstone: poet, pioneer landscape gardener and an early user of this flowery word
Word of the week: One of the longest in English, it’s the action or habit of estimating something as worthless or unimportant, but is it worth exploring this through the prism of song lyrics? Perhaps …
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Three recent books that are more than relevant to the current word
Word of the week: About whom could this apply right now? It's a word for extreme, foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with arrogance that tends to lead to a fall, and a dangerous thing in the head of someone with power who refuses to acknowledge it.
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The ibex will clamber almost vertical walls …
Word of the week: From the genus Capra, or mountain goat, a species that survived the ice age, these specialist climbers have huge horns and spreading feet for death defying climbs and ascents, but how might they have inspired songwriters?
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A small part of a myriander …
Word of the week: It sounds like an exotic name, a form of wandering, or a term for many items, but this beautiful late 17th-century word pertains to an army of 10,000 men, a phrase spanning history and personal metaphor
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The figure portrayed on this famous record cover could be described as a practitioner of nosism
Word of the Week: It sounds like a strange religion or nasal habit, but from Latin ‘nos’, this is the practice of using the ‘we’ pronoun when really only referring oneself in action or opinion - it’s more common in song than ‘we’ might imagine
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The Ariston Organette
Word of the Week: It’s a mechanical, hand-operated organ instrument first manufactured in the late 1870s playing music from perforated paper, cardboard, or metal disks on wooden rolls or “cobs” that clunkily and rather beautifully captures another era
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The phorminx (centre) alongside the harp and lyre.
Word of the week: Taking us back to some of the earliest ever music, in ancient Greek φόρμιγξ, the phorminx, a developed form of lyre, is one of the oldest instruments and the a forerunner to the kithara
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From The Quincunx, the 1989 novel by Charles Palliser
Word of the week: This ancient symbolic word is not really one to sing, but points down many cultural roads through history, as well as unearthing a variety of lesser known music
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Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820
Word of the week: What comes around … this week's rather shapely word circles culture in many directions – from medieval French poetry to a 17th-century musical form all the way to modern slang on sport stars to derogatory cars
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