harmonium

Borrowed from French harmonium, coined by French harmonium inventor Alexandre Debain in 1840. By surface analysis, harmony +‎ -ium. First attested in 1847.

• enPR: här-mō′nē-əm
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɑːˈməʊ̯.niː.əm/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /hɑɹˈmoʊ̯.ni.əm/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /hɐːˈmɐʉ̯.niː.əm/; (also General Australian) /hɐːˈməʉ̯.niː.əm/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /haɹˈmo.ni.əm/
• (India) IPA^(key): /hɑː(ɾ)ˈmoː.niː.um/
• Rhymes: -əʊniəm
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

harmonium (plural harmoniums)

2. (music) A small keyboard instrument that consists of a series of reed pipes, which sound when one of the keys is pressed to open a valve that allows air to pass through.
   • 1847, The Illustrated London News‎^[1], volume 4, quoted in OED, page 95:

     Pianos, melodiums, harmoniums, eolinas, &c. too dear at any price.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes Some Strange Doings in Hammersmith”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     The only other man was a little grey-headed fellow with a pleasant face and quick, twinkling eyes, who sat at a harmonium in the corner.

   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 244:

     They were a grave and reverend seignior in a frock coat, a lady sitting at a portable harmonium, and a chinless youth toying with a crucifix.

   • 1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:

     It [Troutbeck] has religious isolation also, for it is several miles—and very strenuous miles in winter—from the parish church at Mungrisdale, and the introduction of the harmonium to the waiting room was due to the zeal of a vicar of many years ago who, in the absence of any other room in the village, obtained permission to use the premises for services, including Sunday School. Most of his successors have continued this self-sacrificing duty.

4. Synonym of Hooke's atom.

In North America and the United Kingdom, a reed organ with pressure bellows is referred to as a harmonium, whereas in continental Europe, any reed organ is called a harmonium regardless of whether it has pressure or suction bellows.

• “harmonium”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Borrowed from French harmonium. First attested in 1869^[1].

• IPA^(key): /ɦɑrˈmɔ.nij.ʏm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔnijʏm
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

harmonium n (plural harmoniums, diminutive harmoniumpje n)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonyms: kamerorgel, traporgel

• “harmonium” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]
• Matthias de Vries; Lambert Allard te Winkel (1864), “harmonium”, in Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, published 2001

From harmonie +‎ Latin -ium (abstract suffix). Coined by French harmonium inventor Alexandre Debain in 1840.

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.mɔ.njɔm/
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧nium

harmonium m (plural harmoniums)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

• → English: harmonium
• → German: Harmonium
• → Polish: harmonium
• → Turkish: harmonyum, armonyum

• “harmonium”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Borrowed from French harmonium.

• IPA^(key): /(h)arˈmo.ni.um/
• Rhymes: -onium
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

harmonium (plural harmoniums)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

From harmonia + -ium.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [harˈmɔ.ni.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [arˈmɔː.ni.um]
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

harmonium n (genitive harmoniī or harmonī); second declension (New Latin)

2. accordion (a small, portable, keyed wind instrument)
   • 1860, Neues Lausitzisches Magazin‎^[2], volume 37 (overall work in German), page 491:

     Musicus, opus harmoniorum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Borrowed from French harmonium.

harmonium m (plural harmoniums) (Jersey)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

harmonium n (definite singular harmoniet, indefinite plural harmonier, definite plural harmonia or harmoniene)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonyms: pumpeorgel, salmesykkel, trøorgel, tråorgel

harmonium n (definite singular harmoniet, indefinite plural harmonium, definite plural harmonia)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonyms: pumpeorgel, salmesykkel, trøorgel, tråorgel

• harmonjum (pre-reform orthography (1936))

Borrowed from French harmonium.

• IPA^(key): /xarˈmɔɲ.jum/
• Rhymes: -ɔɲjum
• Syllabification: har‧mon‧ium

harmonium n

2. (music, obsolete) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonym: fisharmonia

   grać na harmonium ― to play harmonium

   • 1894, Władysław Ordon (Władysław Szancer), Zbiorek poezji, Warszawa: T[adeusz]. H. Nasierowski, page 49:

     Kos — także uczony! […] najprzód gwiżdże te tony, co harmonium dziadunia…

     Kos — a scholar too! […] first he whistles those notes that grandad's harmonium…

• “harmonium”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1902), “harmonjum”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 2, Warsaw, page 19
• Woliński, Marcin; Saloni, Zygmunt; Wołosz, Robert; Gruszczyński, Włodzimierz; Skowrońska, Danuta; Bronk, Zbigniew (2020), “harmonium”, in Słownik gramatyczny języka polskiego [Grammatical Dictionary of Polish]‎^[4], 4. online edition, Warszawa