ʻukulele
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English[edit]
Noun[edit]
ʻukulele (plural ʻukulele or ʻukuleles)
- Alternative form of ukulele
- 1998, Karen S. Drozd, The Hawaiian 'Ukulele: Its Players, Makers, Teachers and Continuity in Traditional Transmission Processes, page 50:
- All of the 'ukuleles and braguinhas/cavaquinhos examined in this paper use nylon or gut strings.
- 2011, Anthony J. Palmer, “Hawaiʻi Calls: Musics of the Islands”, in Michael Haas, editor, Barack Obama, the Aloha Zen President: How a Son of the 50th State May Revitalize America Based on 12 Multicultural Principles, Praeger, →ISBN, page 158:
- In addition, there will be a small instrumental group, perhaps composed of four ʻukulele.
- 2012, Jim Tranquada, John King, “A Craze of the Frisco Exposition”, in The ʻUkulele: A History, Honolulu, Hi.: University of Hawaiʻi Press, →ISBN, page 104:
- Overseas manufacturers saw a lucrative opportunity as well; as early as 1918, Japanese firms reportedly were making ʻukuleles. […] Martin’s high-end strategy stood in dramatic contrast to the rest of the mainland market, where the ʻukulele’s astonishing popularity and what some critics attacked as wartime profiteers willing to produce and sell instruments “false in tone, flimsy in construction, and made in a cheap, shoddy way” sent prices for instruments steadily downward: from $6 in 1914 to $3.50 in 1915 to a sales price of $1.95 in 1917.
- 2018, Mark Kailana Nelson, “How This Book is Organized”, in Learn to Play Slack Key Style ʻUkulele, Mel Bay Publications, →ISBN, pages 4–5:
- As with my previous ʻukulele books for Mel Bay, the songs are arranged in ascending order of difficulty. If you start at the beginning and work your way to the back you will gain a good understanding of how to play slack key style ʻukulele. […] All of the music is written in standard notation and tablature for ʻukulele.
Hawaiian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Compound of ʻuku (“flea”) + lele (“jump, jumping”), literally “jumping flea”, possibly in reference to the motion of the player's fingers.
There is one theory tracing this to the nickname of Edward Purvis, a resident of Hawaii and noted ukulele player in the 1880s. However, this is probably only a folk etymology (see the end of the Edward William Purvis#Career in Hawaii section).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
ʻukulele