barrel organ

barrel organ

noun
a musical instrument in which air from a bellows is admitted to a set of pipes by means of pins inserted into a revolving barrel; hand organ.

Origin:
1765–75
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Barrel organ is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
Collins
World English Dictionary
barrel organ
 
n
1.  See also hurdy-gurdy an instrument consisting of a cylinder turned by a handle and having pins on it that interrupt the air flow to certain pipes, thereby playing any of a number of tunes
2.  a similar instrument in which the projections on a rotating barrel pluck a set of strings

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

barrel organ

musical instrument in which a pinned barrel turned by a handle raises levers, admitting wind to one or more ranks of organ pipes; the handle simultaneously actuates the bellows. Ten or more tunes can be set on one barrel

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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