† clavichordn.
/ˈklavɪkɔːd/ Obsolete exc. Historical.
A musical instrument with strings and keys; in its developed form resembling a square pianoforte, the tones being produced by the action on the strings of ‘tangents’ or small brass wedges attached in upright position to the back of the keys.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > stringed keyboards > [noun] > clavichord
clavichord1484
clarichord1502
clarigold1558
manicordium1611
manichord1668
1484 W. Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry Bk. Knight of Tower (1971) cxv. 153 Where his vyell or clauycordes were.
1502 in N. H. Nicolas Privy Purse Expenses Elizabeth of York (1830) 41 A straungier that gave the Quene a payre of clavy~cordes.
1632 R. Sherwood Dict. in R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues (new ed.) Clauicords, comme Claricords.
1724 W. Stukeley in W. C. Lukis Family Mem. W. Stukeley (1882) I. 75 Making a clavichord with Jews trumps instead of strings.
1756 M. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) III. 414 Mary is now practising the clavicord, which I have got in the dining-room.
1771 D. Barrington in Philos. Trans. 1770 (Royal Soc.) 60 64 This great musician began to play on the clavichord when he was but seven years of age.
1803–19 Burney in Rees Cycl. at Clavicord, in R. G. Latham Dict. Eng. Lang. Hearing the incomparable Emanuel Bach touch his favourite clavicord at Hamburg.
1888 A. J. Hipkins Mus. Instruments xxxiv The clavichord is, without question, the earliest key-board stringed instrument, it having been developed from the monochord, used for teaching singing in monasteries and church schools. It appears to have come into use in the second half of the 14th century.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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