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Etymology and origin of the English word viol

Pronunciation

  • /ˈvaɪ.əl/[1]

viol1 stringed instrument

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1484 Caxton
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman viele via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Medieval Latin vitula

Etymology

The instrument is first inherited from Middle English viel,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman viele and Old French vielle,[4][5][6][7] later assimilated to or replaced by viole and Middle French viole,[4][5][3] with the present spelling dating from the 16th century.[5][3] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from about 1300 for a viol or fiddle.[7] The French word is from Old Occitan viola, also viula,[5][6][8][9] probably from Medieval Latin vitula (“fiddle”), also vidula.[8][10][9][11] The OED takes the French forms to continue earlier *vidule and *videlle, with variants of the diminutive suffix.[4] Klein says that the Medieval Latin noun may be back-formed from Latin vitulor (“to exult, be joyful”),[9] and that it could have passed through Old High German fidula.[9] Several dictionaries relate the word to fiddle,[5][12][13][8] which Weekley took as a Germanic name of Latin origin.[11] Dictionary.com instead derives the Provençal noun from violar (“to play the viola”), perhaps an imitative verb.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stringed instrument played with a bow: 1484, in Caxton's translation of the Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry.[4] Barnhart has Middle English viel from 1483,[2][3] Etymonline gives about 1500, spelled vial,[10] and Merriam-Webster's Unabridged the 15th century.[8]

Semantic evolution

The name at first covered a fiddle-like medieval instrument;[6][12] from the mid-16th century it meant the Renaissance instrument with five to seven strings, often with frets, held upright on or between the knees.[6][15] The word for the player is older than the first record of the instrument: Etymonline finds Violour as a surname in the late 12th century,[10] and the mid-15th-century Promptorium Parvulorum gives both fydelin and fyielyn for playing the viol.[10] The instrument was in common use from the 15th to the 18th century,[4][10] and the word itself could mean a viol player from 1540 to 1647.[4][6] By the 17th century modifiers distinguished its forms and tones,[4] and Italian viola da gamba (“leg-viol”), so called because the instrument is placed between the legs, gave English viol da gamba in the 18th century, after an earlier gambo.[5] Johnson (1755) needed only "a stringed instrument of musick", quoting Shakespeare's "unstringed viol" and Bacon on lutes and viols.[16] Instruments of the violin family then superseded it,[15][17] and the OED now calls the word historical.[4]

Timeline

  • 1484 – a bowed stringed instrument.[4] Barnhart dates Middle English viel to 1483.[2][3]
  • 1540 – a player on the viol (obsolete by 1647).[4]
  • 1542 – the spelling veol.[2][3]
  • 1560 – the spelling viol.[2][3]
  • 1611 – with modifiers for the form or tone of the instrument.[4]
  • before 1684 – viol d'amore, in Evelyn's diary.[4]
  • 1688 – an organ stop.[4]
  • 1865 – verb, to play the viol.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any of a family of bowed stringed instruments that came before the violin family, usually with six strings, frets and a flat back, and held on or between the knees.[15][8][4]
  2. An organ stop whose tone resembles the instrument.[8][4]
  3. (obsolete, 1540–1647) A player on the viol.[4][6]

Verb

  1. To play the viol.[4]

Word family

  • violist
  • bass viol

viol2 ship's rope

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1627 John Smith, Sea Grammar

Etymology

The ship's rope is of unknown origin.[4][8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large rope used in weighing anchor: 1627, in John Smith's Sea Grammar.[4][8]

Timeline

  • 1627 – a large rope attached to the capstan, for weighing anchor (obsolete by 1869).[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (obsolete, 1627–1869) A large rope attached to the capstan and used to weigh anchor.[4][6][8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ The World Book Dictionary (2015), Chicago: World Book

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Viol.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/viol. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

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