barrel organn.
/ˈbarəlˌɔːɡən/ A musical instrument of the organ type, the keys of which are mechanically acted on by a revolving barrel or cylinder studded with metal pins. Also extended to similar instruments not of the organ type but producing the notes by means of metal tongues which are struck by pins fixed in the barrel. The tone resembles that of a piano; hence they are distinguished as ‘piano organs’. (Occasionally attributive.)
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > musical box > [noun] > barrel-organ
hand organ1721
street organ1769
barrel organ1772
music box1773
grinding-organ1801
panharmonicon1811
flute-organ1828
orchestrino1838
orchestrion1838
organ1841
piano organ1842
autophone1850
grind-organ1888
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > musical box > [noun]
musical box1813
musical snuff-box1825
melodion1826
music box1827
barrel organ1842
harmoniphon1880
polyphon1892
1772 A. Walker Brit. Patent 1020 The Celestina..is also made to be played by a pricked barrel, as the hand or barrel organ.
1796 Monthly Rev. Aug. 400 A barrel-organ..would do the business much more to his satisfaction than the fingers of a man of genius.
1842 C. Dickens Amer. Notes I. vi. 209 I remember [seeing in New York]..one barrel-organ and a dancing-monkey.
1870 J. R. Lowell Among my Bks. (1873) 2nd Ser. 326 The barrel-organ style which had been reigning.
1938 Oxf. Compan. Music 554/1 The application of the colloquial term ‘Barrel Organ’ to this instrument [the street piano] is evidently due to mere association of ideas at the time it became popular.
Derivatives
barrel-organ v. (intransitive) to play a barrel organ.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > performing music > playing instruments > playing other instruments > play other instruments [verb (intransitive)] > grind barrel-organ
grind1841
barrel-organ1871
1871 J. S. Le Fanu Checkmate II. xiii. 128 The guitarring, singing, barrel-organing,..all make a curious and merry Babel.
1928 Times 27 Dec. 15/7 Those who have barrel-organed in a hard December.
barrel-organist n. one who plays such an instrument.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > instrumentalist > other instrumentalists > [noun] > barrel-organ grinder
organ-grinder1792
organist1793
hand organist1805
barrel-organist1866
organ-man1868
1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life ii. 28 Habitually came a barrel-organist and ground before the barracks.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1885; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1772