accordion

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Accordion, the name under which the instrument was patented in Vienna in 1829,^[2][3][4] later spelled Akkordion and now Akkordeon.^[2][5][3] The German word is formed from Accord (“chord”), now Akkord,^[2][3][5] with the ending of Orchestrion, the name of another instrument.^[2][3][5] The OED explains that some buttons on the bass keyboard sound whole chords.^[2] The German noun is from French accord (“chord, harmony”),^[3][6][5] from Old French acorder (“to agree, be in harmony”), from Medieval Latin accordō (“to bring into agreement”).^[6][7] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead derive it from Italian accordare (“to tune an instrument”),^[8][9][10] and Klein from the noun accord with the ending of clarion.^[11] The German spelling Akkordeon was remodelled after French accordéon.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The musical instrument: 1830, in the Morning Post of 24 May.^[2][7][3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate give 1831.^[5][12] Barnhart and Etymonline date the invention to 1829, in Vienna, and Etymonline names its maker as the piano-maker Cyrill Demian.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The bellows of the instrument soon gave the word a figurative use: from 1852, according to Merriam-Webster, accordion described anything that folds like them, as in accordion pleat or accordion door.^[3][2] From 1897 it was also a verb, to fold or crush something in this way, and since 1943 to collapse or fold up like the bellows.^[2][3] The type with a piano keyboard rather than buttons is called a piano accordion.^[7][13]

Timeline

• 1830 – the musical instrument.^[2][7][3] Barnhart dates it to 1831.^[5]
• 1852 – as an adjective, folding like the bellows of an accordion.^[3]
• 1897 – verb, to fold or crush like an accordion.^[2][3]
• 1943 – verb, to fold up or collapse like an accordion.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A portable musical instrument with metal reeds that sound when the player squeezes and stretches a bellows, with notes and chords chosen by buttons or a keyboard.^{[6][3][13][2]}

Adjective

1. Folding or hinged in pleats like the bellows of an accordion: an accordion file.^[6][3]

Verb

1. To fold, crush or collapse into folds like the bellows of an accordion: The crash accordioned the front of the van.^[3][2]

Word family

• accordionist
• accordion pleat
• piano accordion

Related words

• accord
• orchestrion

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins