accordion

English

A piano accordion

Alternative forms

• accordeon (dated)

Etymology

First attested in 1831. From German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈkɔ(ɹ).di.ˌən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈkɔɹ.di.ən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ac‧cord‧i‧on

Noun

accordion (plural accordions)

1. A box-shaped musical instrument with means of keys and buttons, whose tones are generated by play of the wind from a squeezed bellows upon free metallic reeds.

   Hypernym: squeezebox

   Coordinate term: concertina

   • 1869, Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad:

     A disreputable accordion that had a leak somewhere and breathed louder than it squawked.

2. (graphical user interface) A vertical list of items that can be individually expanded and collapsed to reveal their contents.
4. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (figurative) A set of items (concepts, links, or otherwise) that can be packed and unpacked cognitively, or their representation as a set of virtual objects.

   See also: telescoping

Derived terms

• accordionesque
• accordion file
• accordion fold
• accordionist
• accordionlike
• accordion pleat
• button accordion
• piano accordion

 

Descendants

• → Irish: acordán
• → Thai: แอกคอร์เดียน (ɛ́k-kɔɔ-dîian)

Translations

a small, portable, keyed wind instrument

• Afrikaans: akkordeon, trekklavier
• Albanian: fizarmonikë (sq) f
• Amharic: አኮርዲዮን (ʾäkordiyon)
• Arabic: أَكُورْدِيُون m (ʔakurdiyūn)
• Armenian: ակորդեոն (hy) (akordeon)
• Asturian: acordión f
• Azerbaijani: akkordeon
• Basque: akordeoi; eskusoinu
• Belarusian: акардэо́н m (akardeón)
• Bengali: অ্যাকর্ডিয়ন (bn) (êkorḍiẏon), বাদ্যযন্ত্রবিশেষ (baddojontrobiśeś)
• Breton: akordeon m
• Bulgarian: хармо́ника f (harmónika), акордео́н (bg) m (akordeón)
• Burmese: အကော်ဒီယံ (my) (a.kaudiyam)
• Catalan: acordió (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 手風琴／手风琴 (sau² fung¹ kam⁴)

  Hokkien: 手風琴／手风琴 (zh-min-nan) (chhiú-hong-khîm / chhiú-hoang-khîm)

  Mandarin: 手風琴／手风琴 (zh) (shǒufēngqín)

  Wu: 手風琴／手风琴 (⁵seu-fon-jin)

• Czech: akordeon m, harmonika (cs) f
• Danish: trækharmonika c, harmonika (da) c, akkordeon (da) n (with free-bass system)
• Dutch: accordeon (nl) n, harmonica (nl) m
• Esperanto: akordiono
• Estonian: akordion (et); lõõtspill
• Faroese: harmonika f
• Finnish: harmonikka (fi), haitari (fi), hanuri (fi)
• French: accordéon (fr) m
• Galician: acordeón (gl) m
• Georgian: აკორდეონი (ka) (aḳordeoni)
• German: Akkordeon (de) n, Ziehharmonika (de) f, Handharmonika f, Handorgel (de) f, (regional) Quetsche (de) f, (slangy, humorous) Quetschkommode (de) f, Schifferklavier (de) n
• Greek: ακορντεόν (el) n (akornteón)
• Hebrew: אָקּוֹרְדִּיּוֹן (he) m (akordiyón)
• Hindi: अकॉर्डियन (akŏrḍiyan)
• Hungarian: harmonika (hu), tangóharmonika (hu)
• Ido: akordeono (io)
• Indonesian: akordeon (id)
• Interlingua: accordion
• Irish: cairdín m, acordán m
• Italian: fisarmonica (it) f
• Japanese: アコーデオン (ja) (akōdeon), 手風琴 (ja) (てふうきん, tefūkin)
• Kazakh: аккордеон (akkordeon)
• Khmer: អគ័រដេអុង (ʼɑɑkɔədeeʼong)
• Korean: 아코디언 (ko) (akodieon), 수풍금 (supunggeum)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: akordiyon

• Kyrgyz: аккордеон (ky) (akkordeon)
• Latin: accordio f
• Latvian: akordeons m
• Lithuanian: akordeonas m
• Macedonian: армоника f (armonika), хармоника f (harmonika), акордео́н m (akordeón)
• Malay: akordion, tetarik
• Manx: coardeen m
• Maori: kōriana
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: баян хуур (bajan xuur), аккордеон (akkordeon)

  Mongolian: ᠪᠠᠶᠠᠨ
  ᠬᠤᠭᠤᠷ (bayan quɣur)

• Norman: accordéon m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: trekkspell n, trekkspill n, dragspell n, dragspill n, trekkharmonika m, harmonika m, akkordeon (no) n

  Nynorsk: trekkspel n, dragspel n, trekkharmonika m, harmonika m, akkordeon n

• Pashto: اکوردیون m (akordún)
• Persian: آکاردئون (fa) (âkârde'on)
• Polish: akordeon (pl) m inan, harmonia ręczna f
• Portuguese: acordeão (pt) m, gaita (pt) f (South Brazil), sanfona (pt) f
• Romanian: acordeon (ro) n
• Russian: гармо́ника (ru) f (garmónika), гармо́нь (ru) f (garmónʹ), аккордео́н (ru) m (akkordeón), бая́н (ru) m (baján)
• Scottish Gaelic: bogsa-ciùil m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: хармо̀ника f

  Roman: harmònika (sh) f

• Skolt Sami: garmaan
• Slovak: harmonika (sk) f, akordeón m
• Slovene: harmọ́nika (sl) f
• Spanish: acordeón (es) m
• Swahili: kodiani, harimuni (sw)
• Swedish: dragspel (sv) n, handklaver (sv) n (folksy), dragharmonika (sv) c (dated), bälgaspel (sv) n (dialectal), ackordeon (sv) n, ackordion (sv) n, harmonika (sv) c
• Tagalog: akordeyon, akurdyon
• Tajik: аккордеон (akkordeon)
• Thai: หีบเพลงชัก (hìip-pleeng-chák), หีบเพลง (hìip-pleeng), แอกคอร์เดียน (ɛ́k-kɔɔ-dîian)
• Tibetan: ལག་སྦྲེང (lag sbreng)
• Turkish: akordiyon (tr)
• Turkmen: akkordeon (tk)
• Tuvan: аккордеон (akkordeon)
• Ukrainian: акордео́н (uk) m (akordeón), гармо́нія (uk) f (harmónija)
• Uyghur: ئاككوردىيون (akkordiyon)
• Uzbek: akkordeon (uz)
• Vietnamese: phong cầm (vi) (風琴), đàn xếp (彈疊)
• Volapük: tiraharmonöm
• Welsh: acordion m, cordion m (colloquial)
• Yakut: аккордеон (akkordeon)
• Yiddish: אַקאָרדעאָן m (akordeon)

See also

• bandoneon
• concertina

Verb

accordion (third-person singular simple present accordions, present participle accordioning, simple past and past participle accordioned)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To fold up, in the manner of an accordion
   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist:

     I slit the wrapping with my pocketknife and the clothesline accordioned out in stiff loops.

   • 2000 December 29, Charles Dickinson, “Qi”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     Still in reverse, she goosed the gas and accordioned the running board a fraction of an inch more.

   • 2005, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town‎^[2]:

     It accordioned down and he tugged the shirt around it so that it came free […] .

Anagrams

• Concordia