harmonica

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin harmonica, the feminine (or neuter plural) of harmonicus (“harmonic, musical”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} used as a noun, from Ancient Greek ἁρμονικός (harmonikós, “musical”), from ἁρμονία (harmonía), the source of harmony.^[7][5] Benjamin Franklin, who invented the instrument, gave it the name in 1762, spelling it armonica, after Italian armonica, the feminine of armonico (“harmonious”);^[6][8][9][5] the American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Unabridged treat harmonica as an alteration of that form, influenced by harmonic.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Franklin's glass harmonica, a row of hemispherical glasses on an axle turned by a treadle and dipping into a trough of water: 1762, in a letter of Franklin's of 13 July.^[2][11][5]

Semantic evolution

The name passed to other instruments: to organ stops (1852),^[2][11] to a mouth organ with metal reeds (1879 in the OED, 1873 in American English according to Etymonline, which notes the earlier name harmonicon from 1825),^[2][5] and to a row of glass plates on a sounding box struck with hammers (1880).^[2][11] The mouth organ is now the main sense, and Franklin's instrument is called the glass harmonica.^[10][12][3]

Timeline

• 1762 – Franklin's glass harmonica.^[2][5]
• 1852 – an organ stop.^[2]
• 1879 – a mouth organ; also other reed wind instruments.^[2][11] Etymonline dates the mouth organ to 1873, in American English.^[5]
• 1880 – an instrument of glass plates struck with hammers.^[2][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small rectangular wind instrument with metal reeds in slots, played by blowing and sucking air through it; a mouth organ: He played the harmonica on the porch.^[12][10][3]
2. A glass harmonica.^[10][12][2]
3. A percussion instrument of graduated strips of glass or metal struck with hammers.^[10][9][2]

Word family

• harmonicist
• glass harmonica

Related words

• harmonic
• harmony
• harmonicon

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins