violin

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian violino, a diminutive of viola,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} the source of viola;^[4][8] Spanish and Portuguese have the same diminutive.^[4] Merriam-Webster takes the Italian noun from Old Occitan viola (“viol”), also viula,^[9][10] which it derives probably from vitula (“fiddle”).^[10] Ayto traces the word to Vulgar Latin *vītula (“stringed instrument”), named after Vītula, a Roman goddess of joy and victory.^[11] That Latin word is also the probable source of fiddle, borrowed into Germanic much earlier,^[10][11] and, through viole, of viol.^[8][11] Johnson derived the English word from French violon.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bowed four-stringed instrument: the first record is in Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender (1579),^[2][4] and Merriam-Webster dates the word to about 1576.^[9] Etymonline gives the 1570s and Dictionary.com 1570–80.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The violin is the modern form of the smaller medieval viola da braccio,^[3] and the Italian name means a little viola.^[8] According to Merriam-Webster, bowed instruments are known from the 9th century, but the violin itself was developed only in the late 16th century;^[10] fiddle was used in English centuries earlier, and the two words now name the same instrument, their different forms reflecting the long passage of violin through two Romance languages.^[10] Johnson (1755) glossed it simply as "a fiddle".^[12] The word was used for a violinist from 1667, in Pepys's diary, and for an organ stop from 1688.^[4][13] To play first violin, to take the leading part, is recorded from 1780.^[4][13] The verb, to play the violin, is recorded once in 1708 in the sense "to entice by playing" and again from 1895;^[4] Merriam-Webster dates it 1877.^[9] In Australian prison and drug slang a violin is a hypodermic syringe.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1576 – the word, as Merriam-Webster dates it.^[9]
• 1579 – the instrument, in Spenser.^[2][4]
• 1602 – with distinguishing words, as kinds of violin.^[4]
• 1667 – a violinist, in Pepys.^[4]
• about 1670 – violinist.^[2]
• 1688 – an organ stop.^[4]
• 1780 – to play first violin, to take the leading part.^[4]
• 1895 – verb, to play the violin.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A bowed stringed instrument with four strings tuned in fifths, held under the chin, the highest-pitched member of its family: He has played the violin since he was six.
2. A violinist, especially in an orchestra: the second violins.
3. An organ stop with a tone like that of a violin.
4. (Australian slang) A hypodermic syringe.

Verb

1. To play the violin.

Word family

• violinist
• violinistic
• violinmaker

Related words

• viol
• viola
• violoncello
• fiddle
• cello

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com