spinet

spin·et

S0642300 (spĭn′ĭt)n.1. a. A small, compact upright piano.b. A small, compact upright electronic organ.2. A small harpsichord with a single keyboard.

[Obsolete French espinette, from Italian spinetta, perhaps diminutive of spīna, thorn (presumably so called because the strings of the original instrument were plucked with quills); see spinel.]

spinet

(spɪˈnɛt; ˈspɪnɪt) n (Instruments) a small type of harpsichord having one manual[C17: from Italian spinetta, perhaps from Giovanni Spinetti, 16th-century Italian maker of musical instruments and its supposed inventor]

spin•et

(ˈspɪn ɪt)

n. 1. a small upright piano. 2. any of various small harpsichords. 3. a small electric organ. [1655–65; aph. variant of obsolete espinette < French < Italian spinetta, probably derivative of spin(a) thorn (see spine)]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	spinet - a small and compactly built upright pianoupright piano, upright - a piano with a vertical sounding board
	2.	spinet - early model harpsichord with only one string per notecembalo, harpsichord - a clavier with strings that are plucked by plectra mounted on pivots

Translations

spinet

enUK

spinet,

musical instrument of the harpsichordharpsichord,
stringed musical instrument played from a keyboard. Its strings, two or more to a note, are plucked by quills or jacks. The harpsichord originated in the 14th cent. and by the 16th cent. Venice was the center of its manufacture.
..... Click the link for more information. family. Although the terms virginal and spinet, interchangeable until the end of the 17th cent., were sometimes used indiscriminately to designate any harpsichord, they usually referred to small instruments having one keyboard, one string to each note, and the keys more or less perpendicular to the strings, similar to the clavichord. The first spinet, made in the 15th cent., may have been a clavichord to which a quill mechanism was added. In England in the 18th cent. the virginal was an instrument with a rectangular case, while the spinet had a triangular or wing-shaped case. Until the middle of the 18th cent. neither had legs attached. The Elizabethan virginalists, among them William Byrd, Thomas Morley, and Orlando Gibbons, were the composers of an important body of music, of which the outstanding collection is the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (early 17th cent., publ. 1894–99).

spinet

a small type of harpsichord having one manual

spinet

spin·et

spinet

spin•et

spinet

spinet,

spinet

spinet

Words related to spinet

noun a small and compactly built upright piano

Related Words

noun early model harpsichord with only one string per note

Related Words