clarinet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A woodwind musical instrument that has a distinctive liquid tone whose characteristics vary among its three registers: chalumeau (low), clarion (medium), and altissimo (high).

   She played the melody on a clarinet.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Clarinet was borrowed in the mid-18th century from French clarinette, a diminutive of clarine, the name of a kind of bell. It belongs to the same family as clarion, which derives through medieval Latin clario or clarion- from Latin clarus, “clear.”

Borrowed from Italian clarinetto, diminutive of clarino (“trumpet”) (as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet), from Latin clarus. Alternatively, the word may come from French clarinette, diminutive form of clarine (“bell”), from clarin, from clair (“clear”), from Latin clarus.

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary