α. 1800s– accordian, 1800s– accordion; U. S. regional 1900s– acordeen, 1900s– aycordeen.
β. 1800s– accordeon.
accordionn.
/əˈkɔːdɪən/, U.S. /əˈkɔrdiən/ A portable musical instrument played by stretching and squeezing a central bellows to blow air over metal reeds, the melody being sounded by buttons or a keyboard on one side of the bellows and the bass and chords by buttons on the other side.The accordion was patented in 1829 in Vienna by Cyrill Demian, being a development of an instrument invented in 1821 by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann.button accordion, piano accordion: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > other keyboard instruments > [noun] > concertina or accordion
accordion1830
concertina1834
melophone1841
melophonic guitar1842
flutina1859
piano accordion1860
lantum1876
melodeon1880
squeeze-box1909
squiffer1914
bandoneon1925
box1929
organetto1983
1830 Morning Post 24 May Mr. Wheatstone's Symphonion (the Accordion) Monsieur Dietz's Ærophone..Dr. Dowle's Glossophone.., and Mr. Day's Æolian Organ, being various improvements on the Æolina.
1842 C. Dickens in J. Forster Life Dickens iii. iv. 105 I have bought another accordion. The steward lent me one on the passage out and I regaled the ladies' cabin with my performances.
1864 C. Engel Music Most Anc. Nations 18 Each of these tubes contains a small metallic tongue, like the so-called free-reed stops of our organ, or like our accordion.
1944 M. Bourke-White They called it Purple Heart Valley i. 5 Larger bridges were buckled like giant accordions.
1977 P. Carter Under Goliath xxvii. 147 Mr Gannon brought out his accordion and we had a singsong.
2006 Time Out N.Y. 13 July 148/3 French cabaret artist..Nicole Renaud performs moody chansons on the accordion and sings.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. Designating something having or consisting of a series of folds resembling the bellows of an accordion.
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1885 Catal. Cookery & Food Exhib. x The Permanent Accordion Pleating Manufacturing Company.
1899 W. D. Howells Ragged Lady xvii. 147 She had on an accordion skirt.
1936 Times 18 Jan. 9/5 The skilful use of different planes at the corner accordion windows and fluting on the tower.
1959 I. Ross Image Merchants (1960) iv. 67 The accordion wall was always open between their two..offices.
1977 New Yorker 12 Sept. 33/1 The front dance room—usually divided into two separate dance-instruction chambers by a wooden accordion curtain.
1999 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 4 Nov. 57/2 Birdwatchers up at dawn with their web belts and accordion pockets stuffed with cakes and sandwiches.
b.
accordion door n.
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1898 Engin. Mag. Sept. 71 (advt.) Manufacturers of hangers for..accordion doors.
1959 ‘S. Ransome’ I'll die for You i. 17 Through the wide-open accordion door..he saw her.
1996 N.Y. Mag. 17 June 28/3 The tiny knobs on the accordion doors..that cause your fingers to be squeezed from behind as you try to tug the doors open.
accordion fold n.
ΚΠ
1887 Myra's Jrnl. of Dress & Fashion Aug. 400/1 This band must be well smoothed and pressed with the hand, and laid flat on the table, before beginning the accordion folds.
1958 Pop. Sci. Sept. 231/1 Least expensive of the accordion-fold doors is the plain fabric kind without a frame.
2003 S. Smith Origami for First Time (2004) i. 22/1 Applying accordion folds to the diagonal of a square sheet can easily turn a square sheet into a leaf or frond.
accordion pleat n.
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the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > sewn or ornamented textile fabric > [noun] > pleated fabric > pleat
plait1440
pinchc1450
plightc1450
pleata1529
tuck1532
lipea1600
box pleat1857
accordion pleat1884
organ pipe1890
knife-pleat1891
sunburst1897
pin tuck1902
knife-plait1911
1884 Lancaster Gaz. 19 Mar. I think full and careless drapery, with some ‘accordion’ pleats showing in front and at the sides, makes a charming skirt.
1963 K. H. Seibel Joyful Christmas Craft Bk. viii. 151 With the colored tissue in the center, fold the strips together into accordion pleats.
1999 C. Mendelson Home Comforts xxiii. 347/2 Through the eighteenth century, tablecloths were purposely ironed in accordion pleats and checkerboard creases.
C2. Forming parasynthetic adjectives, as accordion-plaited, accordion-pleated, etc.
ΚΠ
1884 Letts's Illustr. Househ. Mag. 178/1 The skirt was composed of two flounces of accordion-pleated faille.
1905 Smart Set Oct. 29/1 A portly front, an accordeon-plaited chin, a thick, oily forehead.
1962 Times 22 Jan. 13/3 Accordion-pleated chiffons.
2001 A. M. Jones Last Year's River xii. 52 There had been a stray calico—a battle-scarred, accordion-ribbed old thing—which she had taken to feeding.
2009 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 Feb. (Business section) 2/2 A big sheaf of accordion-folded printouts.
C3.
accordion file n. a file or folder resembling the bellows of an accordion, with several pockets or divisions for the storage of loose papers.
ΚΠ
1892 J. D. Brown Handbk. Libr. Appliances 37 A useful series of cheap document files are made by Messrs. John Walker & Co. of London..to hold papers about 11 × 9 inches, &c. The collapsing accordion files are also made by this firm.
1965 Hartford (Connecticut) Courant 16 Jan. 7/1 His office in the laundry is equipped with 18 cases of type, stacks of different grades of paper and an accordion file for bills, samples and catalogs.
2003 S. Mackay Heligoland (2004) iii. 33 Her glance ranges round the clutter obscuring the curves of the chamber's design, piles of books and broken accordion files spilling sheets of manuscript.
accordion folder n. originally and chiefly U.S. (a) a series of pictures, photographs, etc., on a long strip of paper or card folded in alternate directions, so as to expand in a manner resembling an accordion's bellows (now rare); (b) = accordion file n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > written record > arrangement and storage of written records > [noun] > filing > file
filace1434
file1525
box file1885
case file1904
accordion folder1913
1913 Printing Art Suggestion Bk. Mar. 12/1 An accordion folder sent out by the Meyercord Co., Chicago, gives reproductions of the Vitrolite signs made by that company.
1914 Recreation & Outdoor World June 357/1 At any store a canvas or pasteboard ‘accordion’ folder can be obtained for a few cents. There are usually three or four pockets.
1972 Chicago Tribune 15 Feb. ii. 3/2 Everyone carries wallets with accordion folders heavy with class pictures.
2008 A. Langer Ellington Boulevard (2009) 101 Darrell turns away from the TV, unwinds the brown string to his accordion folder, opens the folder, and peruses the compartments.
accordion player n. a person who plays the accordion, an accordionist.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > instrumentalist > other instrumentalists > [noun] > players of other instruments
symphoner14..
squeaker1650
accordionist1842
accordion player1842
mouth-organist1887
pannist1983
1842 Daily Atlas (Boston, Mass.) 27 Jan. Mr. Stanwood, the Accordion player, and Mr. Young, the Indian Balancer, will also appear in their unrivalled performances, every evening.
1951 E. Paul Springtime in Paris (U.K. ed.) xi. 198 The street music..was strictly for panhandling—stray accordion players, atrocious old fiddlers, and half-crazed women with cracked voices and maudlin lyrics.
2007 Observer 11 Nov. (Music Monthly Suppl.) 27/1 The crowd of hundreds had already been warmed up by an accordion player who squeezeboxed his way through a selection of folk songs.
Derivatives
aˈccordion-like adj. that resembles an accordion or (more usually) its bellows.
ΚΠ
1861 Househ. Jrnl. 11 May 89/3 The body of the lamp contains a collapsing, accordion-like bag, filled with air.
1936 N.Y. Times 3 Dec. 30/3 A concertina would soon become wearisome, on account of the limited nature of the accordion-like instrument.
2002 J. Eugenides Middlesex iii. 258 So on Middlesex we didn't have doors. Instead we had long, accordion-like barriers, made from sisal, that worked by a pneumatic pump located down in the basement.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
accordionv.
/əˈkɔːdɪən/, U.S. /əˈkɔrdiən/ Originally and chiefly U.S.
1. transitive. To cause (a thing) to fold, collapse, etc., in a manner suggestive of an accordion's bellows. Cf. concertina v. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > reduce in size or extent [verb (transitive)] > fold up or roll up
wrapa1375
roll?a1425
wind?1523
to roll together1525
to roll up1530
fold1561
to wind up1590
furdel1594
to fold up1621
uproll1623
furla1657
telescope1844
concertina1891
accordion1897
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > downward motion > causing to come or go down > cause to come or go down [verb (transitive)] > cause to collapse
collapse1883
accordion1897
1897 Daily Picayune (New Orleans) 4 Dec. 3/4 Many of these capes are made of grenadine on a velvet yoke, the grenadine being frilled, fluted and accordioned to a chaos of fluffs.
1917 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 784/2 The company, in the shape of an L, not having completed the turn in column, now accordioned its flanks toward each other.
1984 T. C. Boyle Budding Prospects (1985) iii. i.141 As I drew closer I saw that an entire section of chicken wire had been accordioned, balled up as if under the pressure of some immense crushing weight.
1999 A. E. Holden & B. J. Sammler Struct. Design for Stage vi. 128 If the frame is stapled or nailed together, it is very easy to ‘accordion’ it, to make it collapse by applying horizontal pressure.
2005 J. MacGregor Sunday Money vii. 199 Spinning, he hits, first front then rear, hard: hard enough to accordion the car down to about two-thirds of its original size.
2. intransitive. To fold, collapse, or wrinkle in the manner of an accordion's bellows; also with up. Also occasionally: to stretch out in such a manner. Cf. concertina v. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > reduction in size or extent > become reduced in size or extent [verb (intransitive)] > fold or roll up
furl1676
uproll1805
telescope1866
roll1901
fold1914
concertina1918
accordion1943
1943 Rotarian Apr. 58/1 Then the shelves accordion up until the packages are so tightly sandwiched that air is driven from the cabinet.
1955 Hutchinson (Kansas) News-Herald 21 Feb. 8/5 The car body accordioned when it struck an eight-foot embankment beside the road.
1977 Pop. Mech. July 75/1 When you are parked for the night at a pleasant campsite, the motor home front accordions out into a vertical position.
1992 N.Y. Times Mag. 12 Apr. 56/4 All wore the standard cowboy uniform:..ironed Wrangler jeans, so tight they accordioned at the knees, and a zooful of designer-line boots.
2005 K. MacNeil Stornoway Way 115 Her nose accordions in distaste.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1830v.1897