nickelodeon

Etymology

It is formed from English nickel + odeon, after melodeon in the sense of a music hall,^[2][3][4] or, as Merriam-Webster puts it, probably a blend of nickel and melodeon;^[5] the American Heritage Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the second part as a shortening of melodeon.^[6][7][8] The nickel is the five-cent coin, the price of admission.^[3][9][4] Melodeon as a name for a music hall is recorded from 1840,^[3][4] and the ending goes back ultimately to a Greek word for a building for musical performances.^[3][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A theatre or other place of entertainment charging one nickel for admission: 1888, in the Boston Sunday Globe.^[2][5][4] Etymonline records it that year as the name of a theatre in Boston,^[3] while the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English date the word to the early 20th century.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The word is originally American.^[2][10][7] By 1909 it meant a cinema showing motion pictures for a nickel, which Munsey's Magazine that year called "the poor man's theater".^[3] The Shorter Oxford also gives an amusement arcade.^[7] From 1938 it was used of a jukebox, and also of a player piano.^{[2][3][4][10]} The theatre sense is now historical.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1888 – a theatre or place of entertainment with an admission of one nickel.^[2][4][5]
• 1909 – a cinema showing motion pictures for a nickel.^[3]
• 1938 – a jukebox; also a player piano.^[2][3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical, originally US) An early cinema or variety theatre charging an admission of five cents.^[2][10][5]
2. A jukebox.^[5][2][10]
3. A coin-operated player piano or pianola.^[10][2]

Related words

• nickel
• melodeon
• odeon

References

1. ^ 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 d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins