harmonium

See also: Harmonium and harmóníum

English

an Indian harmonium (sense 1)

Etymology

Borrowed from French harmonium, coined by French harmonium inventor Alexandre Debain in 1840. By surface analysis, harmony +‎ -ium. First attested in 1847.

Pronunciation

• enPR: här-mō′nē-əm
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɑːˈməʊ̯.niː.əm/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /hɑɹˈmoʊ̯.ni.əm/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /hɐːˈmɐʉ̯.niː.əm/; (also General Australian) /hɐːˈməʉ̯.niː.əm/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /haɹˈmo.ni.əm/
• (India) IPA^(key): /hɑː(ɾ)ˈmoː.niː.um/
• Rhymes: -əʊniəm
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

Noun

harmonium (plural harmoniums)

2. (music) A small keyboard instrument that consists of a series of reed pipes, which sound when one of the keys is pressed to open a valve that allows air to pass through.
   • 1847, The Illustrated London News‎^[1], volume 4, quoted in OED, page 95:

     Pianos, melodiums, harmoniums, eolinas, &c. too dear at any price.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes Some Strange Doings in Hammersmith”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     The only other man was a little grey-headed fellow with a pleasant face and quick, twinkling eyes, who sat at a harmonium in the corner.

   • 1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 244:

     They were a grave and reverend seignior in a frock coat, a lady sitting at a portable harmonium, and a chinless youth toying with a crucifix.

   • 1951 October, “Notes and News: The Harmonium at Troutbeck”, in Railway Magazine, page 709:

     It [Troutbeck] has religious isolation also, for it is several miles—and very strenuous miles in winter—from the parish church at Mungrisdale, and the introduction of the harmonium to the waiting room was due to the zeal of a vicar of many years ago who, in the absence of any other room in the village, obtained permission to use the premises for services, including Sunday School. Most of his successors have continued this self-sacrificing duty.

4. Synonym of Hooke's atom.

Usage notes

In North America and the United Kingdom, a reed organ with pressure bellows is referred to as a harmonium, whereas in continental Europe, any reed organ is called a harmonium regardless of whether it has pressure or suction bellows.

Derived terms

• harmoniumist
• organ harmonium
• telharmonium

Translations

musical instrument

• Catalan: harmònium (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 簧風琴 / 簧风琴 (zh)

• Dutch: harmonium (nl) n
• Esperanto: harmoniumo
• Finnish: harmoni (fi), urkuharmoni (fi)
• French: harmonium (fr) m
• Galician: harmonio (gl) m
• German: Harmonium (de) n
• Gujarati: પેટીવાજું (peṭīvājũ)
• Hindi: हारमोनियम (hi) (hārmoniyam)
• Icelandic: harmóníum n
• Ido: harmoniumo (io)
• Interlingua: harmonium
• Irish: armóin f
• Italian: armonium m, armonio m
• Konkani: पेटी (peṭī)
• Latin: (New Latin) harmonium n
• Māori: hāmonia
• Marathi: हार्मोनियम (hārmoniyam)
• Norman: harmonium m (Jersey)
• Polish: fisharmonia (pl) f, harmonium (pl) n
• Portuguese: harmônio (pt) m (Brazil), harmónio (pt) m (Portugal)
• Russian: фисгармо́ния (ru) f (fisgarmónija)
• Spanish: armonio m, armónium m
• Tagalog: armonyo
• Telugu: హార్మోనియం (te) (hārmōniyaṁ)
• Urdu: ہارمونیم
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can

See also

• melodeon
• reed organ
• shruti box

Further reading

• “harmonium”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Dutch

harmonium (sense 1)

Etymology

Borrowed from French harmonium. First attested in 1869.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɦɑrˈmɔ.nij.ʏm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔnijʏm
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

Noun

harmonium n (plural harmoniums, diminutive harmoniumpje n)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonyms: kamerorgel, traporgel

Further reading

• “harmonium” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]
• Matthias de Vries; Lambert Allard te Winkel (1864), “harmonium”, in Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, published 2001

French

un harmonium (sense 1)

Etymology

From harmonie +‎ Latin -ium (abstract suffix). Coined by French harmonium inventor Alexandre Debain in 1840.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.mɔ.njɔm/
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧nium

Noun

harmonium m (plural harmoniums)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

Descendants

• → English: harmonium
• → German: Harmonium
• → Polish: harmonium
• → Turkish: harmonyum, armonyum

Further reading

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

Interlingua

Etymology

Borrowed from French harmonium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(h)arˈmo.ni.um/
• Rhymes: -onium
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

Noun

harmonium (plural harmoniums)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

Latin

Etymology

From harmonia +‎ -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [harˈmɔ.ni.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [arˈmɔː.ni.um]
• Hyphenation: har‧mo‧ni‧um

Noun

harmonium n (genitive harmoniī or harmonī); second declension (New Latin)

2. accordion (a small, portable, keyed wind instrument)
   • 1860, Neues Lausitzisches Magazin‎^[2], volume 37 (overall work in German), page 491:

     Musicus, opus harmoniorum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	harmonium	harmonia
genitive	harmoniī harmonī1	harmoniōrum
dative	harmoniō	harmoniīs
accusative	harmonium	harmonia
ablative	harmoniō	harmoniīs
vocative	harmonium	harmonia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French harmonium.

Noun

harmonium m (plural harmoniums) (Jersey)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

harmonium n (definite singular harmoniet, indefinite plural harmonier, definite plural harmonia or harmoniene)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonyms: pumpeorgel, salmesykkel, trøorgel, tråorgel

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

harmonium n (definite singular harmoniet, indefinite plural harmonium, definite plural harmonia)

2. (music) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonyms: pumpeorgel, salmesykkel, trøorgel, tråorgel

Polish

harmonium (sense 1)

Alternative forms

• harmonjum (pre-reform orthography (1936))

Etymology

Borrowed from French harmonium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xarˈmɔɲ.jum/
• Rhymes: -ɔɲjum
• Syllabification: har‧mon‧ium

Noun

harmonium n

2. (music, obsolete) harmonium (musical instrument)

   Synonym: fisharmonia

   grać na harmonium ― to play harmonium

   • 1894, Władysław Ordon (Władysław Szancer), Zbiorek poezji, Warszawa: T[adeusz]. H. Nasierowski, page 49:

     Kos — także uczony! […] najprzód gwiżdże te tony, co harmonium dziadunia…

     Kos — a scholar too! […] first he whistles those notes that grandad's harmonium…

Declension

Declension of harmonium

	singular	plural
nominative	harmonium	harmonia
genitive	harmonium	harmoniów
dative	harmonium	harmoniom
accusative	harmonium	harmonia
instrumental	harmonium	harmoniami
locative	harmonium	harmoniach
vocative	harmonium	harmonia

Further reading

• harmonium in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1902), “harmonjum”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 2, Warsaw, page 19
• Woliński, Marcin; Saloni, Zygmunt; Wołosz, Robert; Gruszczyński, Włodzimierz; Skowrońska, Danuta; Bronk, Zbigniew (2020), “harmonium”, in Słownik gramatyczny języka polskiego [Grammatical Dictionary of Polish]‎^[3], 4. online edition, Warszawa