Viol - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

vi·ol

Audio Help [vahy-uh

l] Pronunciation Key

–noun

a bowed musical instrument, differing from the violin in having deeper ribs, sloping shoulders, a greater number of strings, usually six, and frets: common in the 16th and 17th centuries in various sizes from the treble viol to the bass viol.

[Origin: 1475–85; < MF viole (akin to OF viel(l)e > earlier E viele) < OPr viola, deriv. of violar to play the viola¹ (perh. imit.)

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Viol

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

vi·ol Audio Help (vī'əl) Pronunciation Key
n.

Any of a family of stringed instruments, chiefly of the 16th and 17th centuries, having a fretted fingerboard, usually six strings, and a flat back and played with a curved bow.
See viola da gamba.

[Alteration of Middle English viel, from Old French viole, vielle, from Old Provençal viola; see viola¹.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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viola da gam·ba Audio Help (gäm'bə, gām'-) Pronunciation Key
n.

A stringed instrument, the bass of the viol family, with approximately the range of the cello. Also called bass viol, gamba, viol.
An organ stop of eight-foot pitch yielding tones similar to those of the viola da gamba.

[Italian : viola, viol + da, of, for + gamba, leg.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
viol

musical instrument, 1483, viel, from M.Fr. viole, from O.Fr., from O.Prov. viola (see viola).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

viol
noun
any of a family of bowed stringed instruments that preceded the violin family

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Viol

Fid"dle\, n. [OE. fidele, fithele, AS. fi?ele; akin to D. vedel, OHG. fidula, G. fiedel, Icel. fi?la, and perh. to E. viol. Cf. Viol.]

1. (Mus.) A stringed instrument of music played with a bow; a violin; a kit.

2. (Bot.) A kind of dock (Rumex pulcher) with fiddle-shaped leaves; -- called also fiddle dock.

3. (Naut.) A rack or frame of bars connected by strings, to keep table furniture in place on the cabin table in bad weather. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.

Fiddle beetle (Zo["o]l.), a Japanese carabid beetle (Damaster blaptoides); -- so called from the form of the body.

Fiddle block (Naut.), a long tackle block having two sheaves of different diameters in the same plane, instead of side by side as in a common double block. --Knight.

Fiddle bow, fiddlestick.

Fiddle fish (Zo["o]l.), the angel fish.

Fiddle head, an ornament on a ship's bow, curved like the volute or scroll at the head of a violin.

Fiddle pattern, a form of the handles of spoons, forks, etc., somewhat like a violin.

Scotch fiddle, the itch. (Low)

To play first, or second, fiddle, to take a leading or a subordinate part. [Colloq.]

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