viol

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a member of a family of fretted bowed string instruments, usually with six strings and held vertically, prominent in European music from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries

   The consort performed the lament on treble, tenor, and bass viols.

Borrowed through Middle and Old French viol or viole from Old Occitan viola and Medieval Latin vitula, 'stringed instrument.' It is a close historical relative of viola, though the viol and violin families differ in construction and playing technique.

Topics