harmonica

See also: harmónica, harmònica, and harmônica

English

harmonicas (wind instruments)

Etymology

From armonica, coined by Benjamin Franklin to refer to his glass harmonica, an instrument that predated the small wind instrument by several decades. Doublet of harmonic.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌhɑɹˈmɒ.nɪ.kə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌhɑɹˈmɑ.nɪ.kə/

Noun

harmonica (plural harmonicas)

1. A musical wind instrument with a series of holes for the player to blow into, each hole producing a different note
2. A musical instrument, consisting of a series of hemispherical glasses which, by touching the edges with the dampened finger, give forth the tones.
3. A toy instrument of strips of glass or metal hung on two tapes, and struck with hammers.

Synonyms

• French harp
• gob iron
• harmonicon (dated)
• Mississippi sax
• mouth harp
• mouth organ
• tin sandwich

Derived terms

• glass harmonica
• harmonica bug
• harmonicaist
• harmonicist

 

Descendants

• → Dutch: harmonica
• → German: Harmonika
  • → French: harmonica
  • →? Plautdietsch: Harmonika
• → Spanish: armónica
• → Japanese: ハーモニカ (hāmonika)
  • → Sakizaya: hamunika
• → Korean: 하모니카 (hamonika)

Translations

wind instrument

• Afrikaans: mondfluitjie sg, bekfluitjie sg, mondharmonika sg
• Arabic: هارمونيكا f (harmunika)
• Bulgarian: устна хармоника f (ustna harmonika)
• Catalan: harmònica (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 口琴 (hau² kam⁴)

  Mandarin: 口琴 (zh) (kǒuqín)

• Czech: harmonika (cs) f
• Danish: mundharmonika c, mundharpe c
• Dutch: mondharmonica (nl) f
• Esperanto: buŝharmoniko
• Estonian: suupill
• Faroese: munnharpa f
• Finnish: huuliharppu (fi)
• French: harmonica (fr) m
• German: Mundharmonika (de) f
• Greek: φυσαρμόνικα (el) f (fysarmónika)
• Hebrew: מַפּוּחִית פֶּה (mapukhit pe)
• Hungarian: szájharmonika (hu)
• Icelandic: munnharpa (is) f
• Ilocano: silindro
• Indonesian: harmonika (id)
• Irish: armónach m
• Italian: armonica (it) f
• Japanese: ハーモニカ (ja) (hāmonika), 口風琴 (ja) (くちふうきん, kuchifūkin)
• Korean: 하모니카 (ko) (hamonika), 구풍금(口風琴) (gupunggeum)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: harmonîka

• Lithuanian: lūpinė armonikėlė f
• Macedonian: у́сна хармо́ника f (úsna harmónika)
• Maltese: armonika f
• Maori: hāmonika, pūtangitangi
• Marathi: हार्मोनिका m (hārmonikā)
• Mongolian: аман хуур (aman xuur)
• Norwegian: munnspill, munnharmonika
• Persian: سازدهنی (fa) (sâzdahani)
• Polish: harmonijka (pl)
• Portuguese: gaita (pt), harmónica (pt) f (Portugal), gaita-de-beiços f (Portugal)
• Romanian: muzicuță (ro) f
• Russian: губна́я гармо́ника f (gubnája garmónika), губна́я гармо́шка f (gubnája garmóška) (colloquial)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: усна хармоника f

  Roman: usna harmonika f

• Sicilian: sunettu a bucca m
• Spanish: armónica (es) f, harmónica (es) f, rondín (es) m (Ecuador, Peru)
• Swahili: kinanda cha mdomo, kinanda cha mkono
• Swedish: munspel (sv) n
• Tagalog: silindro, armonika
• Turkish: mızıka (tr), armonika (tr)
• Vietnamese: khẩu cầm (口琴)
• Volapük: harmonöm (vo)
• Walloon: muzike a boke f, muzike a boutche f
• Welsh: crwth genau m

musical instrument, consisting of a series of glasses

• German: Glasharmonika (de) f

toy instrument

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Slovene: orglice (sl) f
• Swedish: munspel (sv) n

Anagrams

• charmonia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English harmonica (“musical instrument made from hemispherical glasses”), coined by Benjamin Franklin as armonica based on Italian armonica, from Latin harmonica, feminine of harmonicus, from Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (harmonía, “harmony”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɦɑrˈmoː.ni.kaː/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧ca

Noun

harmonica f (plural harmonica's)

1. harmonica, mouth harp (portable wind instrument)

   Synonym: mondharmonica

2. harmonica, glass harmonica (musical instrument made from hemispherical glasses)

   Synonym: glasharmonica

Derived terms

• glasharmonica
• handharmonica
• harmonicabus
• knopharmonica
• mondharmonica
• trekharmonica

French

Etymology

Borrowed from German Harmonika; compare harmonique.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.mɔ.ni.ka/

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (CAN)

  (file)

Noun

harmonica m (plural harmonicas)

1. harmonica

Further reading

• “harmonica”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.