accordion

English

A piano accordion

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

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ac‧cord‧i‧on

Noun

accordion (plural accordions)

1. A small, portable, keyed wind instrument, whose tones are generated by play of the wind from a squeezed bellows upon free metallic reeds.
   • 1869, Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad:

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

   • 1911, Ambrose Bierce, Devil’s Dictionary:

     Accordion: an instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:

     An accordion underskirt of blue silk moirette.

2. (graphical user interface) A vertical list of items that can be individually expanded and collapsed to reveal their contents.

Synonyms

• squeezebox

Derived terms

• accordion file
• accordionist
• accordion player
• button accordion
• piano accordion

 

Descendants

• → Irish: acordán

Translations

A small, portable, keyed wind instrument

• Afrikaans: akkordeon, trekklavier
• Albanian: fizarmonikë (sq) f
• Arabic: أَكُورْدِيُون m (ʾakurdiyūn)
• Armenian: ակորդեոն (hy) (akordeon)
• Asturian: acordión f
• Basque: akordeoi; eskusoinu
• Belarusian: акардэо́н m (akardeón)
• Breton: akordeon m
• Bulgarian: хармо́ника f (harmónika), акордео́н (bg) m (akordeón)
• Catalan: acordió (ca) m
• Chinese:

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

• 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
• German: Akkordeon (de) n, Ziehharmonika (de) f, Handharmonika f, Handorgel f, (regional) Quetsche f, (slangy, humorous) Quetschkommode (de) f, Schifferklavier (de) n
• Greek: ακορντεόν (el) n (akornteón)
• Hebrew: אקורדיון (he) (akordeon)
• Hindi: अकॉर्डियन (akŏrḍiyan)
• Hungarian: harmonika (hu), tangóharmonika (hu)
• Ido: akordeono (io)
• Indonesian: akordeon (id)
• Interlingua: accordion
• Interlingue:
• Irish: cairdín m, acordán m
• Italian: fisarmonica (it) f
• Japanese: アコーデオン (akōdeon), 手風琴 (ja) (てふうきん, tefūkin)
• Korean: 아코디언 (ko) (akodieon)
• Kyrgyz: аккордеон (ky) (akkordeon)
• Latin: accordio f
• Macedonian: армоника f (armonika), хармоника f (harmonika), акордео́н m (akordeón)
• Manx: coardeen m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: kōriana
• Mongolian: баян хуур (bajan xuur), 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

• Persian: آکاردئون (fa) (âkârde'on)
• Polish: akordeon (pl) m inan, harmonia ręczna f
• Portuguese: acordeão (pt) m, gaita (pt) f (South Brazil)
• 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: хармоника f

  Roman: harmonika (sh) f

• Skolt Sami: garmaan
• Slovak: harmonika (sk) f
• Slovene: harmonika (sl) f
• Spanish: acordeón (es) m
• Swahili: kodiani, harimuni (sw)
• Swedish: dragspel (sv) n, ackordeon (sv) n, ackordion (sv) n, dragharmonika (sv) c, harmonika (sv) c, handklaver (sv) n
• Tagalog: akordeyon, akurdyon
• Tibetan: ལག་སྦྲེང (lag sbreng)
• Turkish: akordiyon (tr)
• Tuvan: аккордеон (akkordeon)
• Ukrainian: акордео́н (uk) m (akordeón), гармо́нія (uk) f (harmónija)
• Vietnamese: phong cầm (vi) (風琴), đàn xếp
• 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
   • 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