6 November is World Saxophone Day, apparently. It’s the anniversary of the day the inventor was born – we’ll share his name a little later. We thought it was a good opportunity to produce an alphabet of interesting instrument names, from accordion to zither. As far as possible, we’ve tried to stick to common instruments you’ll already have heard of – but some of the letters proved more challenging…
11月6日表面上是世界萨克斯之日，事实上是发明家诞辰的纪念日——我们晚一点再公布他的名字。我们觉得吧，这是一个按字母表顺序介绍一些有意思的乐器的大好机会，从手风琴到齐特琴。我们尽最大可能列出你们熟知的乐器——但是有些字母的挑战性还蛮大的……
Accordion
手风琴
Accordion is from the German Akkordion, a derivative of Akkord ‘harmony’, and so named because some of the buttons on the bass keyboard are mechanically coupled to sound chords…
手风琴这个词源于德语Akkordion——Akkord的派生词，意为“和谐”。这样命名是因为低音键盘上的一些琴键机械地发声为和弦。
Bugle
军号
Bugle is ultimately from the Latin buculus, a diminutive of bos meaning ‘ox’. An earlier sense of the word was ‘wild ox’, hence the compound bugle-horn, denoting the horn of an ox used to give signals, originally in hunting.
军号基本上源自拉丁文buculus，bos的小称词缀，意为“公牛”。这个词早期的意思是“野公牛”，而复合词’军号‘表示的是最初在打猎中用来发出信号的公牛角。
Clarinet
单簧管
Clarinet is from the French clarinette, the diminutive of clarine, a variant of the more familiar word clarion, denoting a shrill-sounding trumpet with a narrow tube…
单簧管源自法语clarinette，clarine的小称词缀，更被熟知为Clarion的变形，表示的是一根狭窄的管子的号角发出的尖锐的声音……
Didgeridoo
迪吉里杜管
The word didgeridoo dates to the 1920s, and is from an Aboriginal language of Arnhem Land. The name is believed to be imitative of the noise the Australian instrument makes.
迪吉里杜管这个词要追溯回20世纪20年代，源自阿纳姆地土著人的语言。这个词语被认为是模仿澳大利亚乐器声音的意思。
Euphonium
小低音号
The euphonium is blowing its own trumpet (if you’ll pardon the pun); the name of this brass instrument comes from the Greek euphōnos, meaning ‘having a pleasing sound’.
小低音号正吹着自己的喇叭（如果你能明白其中的双关）；这件铜管乐器的名字源自希腊语euphōnos，意为“有着愉悦的声响”。
Fife
横笛
Fife (the name for a kind of small, shrill flute used with a drum in military bands) is either directly from German Pfeife meaning ‘pipe’, or a corruption of the French fifre from Swiss German Pfifer meaning ‘piper’.
横笛（在军中乐团里，被用来与鼓和音的一种小型的声音尖锐的笛子），要么直接取自德语Pfeife，意为“管子”，要么是法语fifre——源自瑞士德语Pfifer，意为”风笛手“的变形。
Glockenspiel
钟琴
Glockenspiel literally translates from German as ‘bell play’. It originally denoted an organ stop which imitated the sound of bells.
钟琴字面上是从德语“玲儿响”翻译过来的。最初指模仿铃铛声响的一种调音器。
Hurdy-gurdy
手摇风琴
Hurdy-gurdy is the (imitative) name for the instrument with a droning sound played by turning a handle, which is typically attached to a rosined wheel sounding a series of drone strings, with keys worked by the left hand. More informally, the name is applied to any instrument having a droning sound and played by turning a handle, such as the barrel organ.
手摇风琴是由（模仿）靠转动手柄发出嗡嗡声的乐器而命名的。这种乐器靠左手转动调音，很有代表性的靠松脂轮子转动发出嗡嗡的响声。更通俗的讲，这个名字被应用于任何发出嗡嗡声的，靠手摇的乐器，比如鼓风琴。
Instrument
乐器
Let’s have a quick look at the word instrument itself. If you’ve had instructions in playing an instrument, then you’re getting two words that derive ultimately from the Latin instruere (meaning ‘construct, equip).
我们来快速游览一下乐器这个词本身。如果你有一本乐器演奏指南，你就能发现这两个词均基本上源自拉丁文instruere（意为“建造，装备”）。
Jew’s harp
犹太人的竖琴
The Jew’s harp is a small lyre-shaped musical instrument held between the teeth and struck with a finger. It can produce only one note, but harmonics are sounded by the player altering the shape of the mouth cavity. The origin of the name is uncertain; one suggestion is that the instrument was made, sold, or sent to England by Jewish people (or was supposed to be so).
犹太人的竖琴是一个在牙齿中间含住，并用一根手指拨弄的小型七弦乐器。它只能发出一个音符，但和声靠乐手改变口腔的形状来发出。名字的原意含糊不清；一种解释是这种乐器是由犹太人制作、出售或者送给英格兰的（或应该如此）。
Koto
十三弦古筝
A koto is a Japanese zither about six feet long, with thirteen strings passed over small movable bridges. Unsurprisingly, the name koto is also Japanese; it is a transliteration of the symbol 箏.
十三弦古筝是一种六英尺长的日本齐特琴，由13根弦驾于小型的可移动的桥梁之上构成。不出所料的，这个名字也是日语；它是符号“箏”的音译。
Lute
琵琶
The lute is a stringed instrument that was most popular from the 14th to the 17th centuries. Some forms of the word in other European languages are French luth, Italian liuto, Dutch liut, and Danish lut, amongst others. The name ultimately derives from the Arabic al-‘ūd; literally ‘the wood’, perhaps denoting its wooden soundboard.
琵琶是14世纪到17世纪最受欢迎的弦乐器。这个单词用其他欧洲国家的语言表达分别是法语luth，意大利语liuto，荷兰语liut和丹麦语lut，及其他。该词基本源于阿拉伯语al-‘ūd；字面意思是“木头”，猜想指的是它的木制音板。
Melodica
口风琴
Melodica actually refers to two different instruments, although one of them is now historical only. The first melodica was a small variety of pipe organ invented by J.A. Stein in 1770 (although the earliest known use of the term in English, according to OED research, is not until 1890). The current melodica (a wind instrument with a mouthpiece and a small keyboard controlling a row of reeds) is first attested, as a word, in the 1960s. The name of both instruments derives melody (following the same pattern as harmonica from harmony); melody is ultimately from the Greek melos, ‘song’.
口风琴实际上指两种不同的乐器，虽然其中一种如今已成为历史。第一种口风琴是J.A.斯坦因在1770年发明的种类稀少的管风琴（虽然根据牛津英语词典的研究，这个单词在英语里的最早用法并不是这个，直到1890年才改变）。现在的管风琴（吹奏乐器，有吹口和一个小的控制一排哨片的键盘）第一次作为一个单词出现，是在20世纪60年代。这两样乐器的名字源自旋律（和口风琴源自和谐一个模式）；旋律基本上来源于希腊语melos，“歌曲”。
Ney
奈伊笛
Ney is a type of flute used in the Middle East, consisting of an open-ended length of cane with finger-holes, sounded by blowing across the rim. The name comes from the Turkish ney meaning reed or flute, and its etymon Persian nay (pipe, reed, flute).
奈伊笛是一种在中东使用的笛子，由一根开放式长度的带有指孔的手杖构成，靠在边缘吹气发声。该名称源自土耳其语ney，和它的字根波斯语nay（管子，牧笛，笛子），意为牧笛或笛子。
Ocarina
陶笛
Ocarina is a small, egg-shaped ceramic or metal wind instrument with holes for the fingers (and you may well have played one at school). Unexpectedly, perhaps, ocarina comes from the Italian oca meaning ‘goose’, based on the shape of the instrument.
陶笛是一个带有指孔的小型鸡蛋型陶瓷或金属吹奏乐器（而且你可能在学校学过怎么玩）。出乎意料的，也许基于其乐器的形状，陶笛这个单词源自意大利语oca，意为“鹅”，
Piano
钢琴
Piano is actually an abbreviation of pianoforte, from Italian, and found earlier as piano e forte – that is, ‘soft and loud’. The instrument is so named because of its gradation of tone, in contrast to the unvarying tone of the ordinary harpsichord.
钢琴实际上是pianoforte（钢琴）这个单词的缩写，源自意大利语。在早期写作piano e forte——意为”柔软的和响亮的“。该乐器的命名源自渐变的音调，和最早的音调一成不变的大键琴形成对比。
Quena
八孔目笛
Quena, the name for various types of Andean end-blown flutes (typically made of wood with a notched mouthpiece, six finger holes, and a rear thumb hole), comes ultimately from the Aymara qina meaning ‘thing full of holes’.
八孔木笛是各类安第斯管端开口以便吹奏的笛子（代表性的八孔目笛是木制的，有吹口缺口，六个手指孔和一个后拇指孔），这个词基本源自艾玛拉语qina，意为“多孔器”）。
Ryuteki
龙笛
Ryuteki is a Japanese instrument made of bamboo, and means literally ‘dragon flute’.
龙笛是一种竹子做的日本乐器，按字面解释就是”龙笛”。
Saxophone
萨克斯管
Saxophone is the one you’ve been waiting for! Saxophone was, in fact, named after its inventor – Adolphe Sax (1814-1894). He also invented the saxhorn, saxotromba, and saxtuba.
众星盼月的萨克斯管来啦！萨克斯管呢，实际上是以它的发明家阿道夫·萨克斯（1814-1894）命名的。他也发明了萨克斯号，萨克斯小号和低音萨克斯管。
Timpani
定音鼓
Have you ever wondered what the difference is between timpani and kettledrums? Well, only the language, it turns out – timpani is the Italian for kettledrums.
你有没有想过低音鼓（timpani）和低音鼓（kettledrums）之间的不同？哈哈，也只有语言能为你解读一二了——低音鼓（timpani）是低音鼓（kettledrums）的意大利语。
Ukulele
尤克里里琴
Ukulele is from Hawaiian, and literally means ‘jumping flea’. The name was apparently earned by a British army officer, Edward Purvis, in the court of King Kalakaua, in response to his lively and energetic playing.
尤克里里琴源自夏威夷语，字面上解释为“跳跃的跳蚤”。显然，该名称是对英国军官爱德华·珀维斯在卡拉卡瓦国王的大殿上，生动而又充满活力的演奏的响应。
Violin
小提琴
Although you may be more familiar with the violin than the viola, the word violin is actually a diminutive of viola. According to current OED research, the earliest sense of violin as a verb was ‘to entice by violin-playing’.
虽然比起中提琴，你对小提琴更感到耳熟，但是小提琴这个单词实际上是中提琴的小称词缀。根据当下牛津英语词典的研究，小提琴最早为动词，意为“被弹奏小提琴所吸引”。
Whistle
口哨
The instrument named whistle (and the ‘sound made by forcing breath through a small hole between partly closed lips’) relates to the Old English hwistle, of Germanic origin. It is imitative and relates to the Swedish vissla ‘to whistle’. Whistle-stop (now most commonly an adjective meaning ‘very fast and with only brief pauses’) was originally a noun which designated a small railway station or town at which trains did not stop unless requested by a signal given on a whistle.
被称为口哨的乐器（从部分合拢的嘴唇间的小洞中吹出声音）和起源于日耳曼语的古英语hwistle有关。它是瑞典语vissla，意为“吹口哨”的模仿和关联。短暂停留（如今被普遍认为是 “很快，且只做短暂停留”的形容词）最初是作为一个名词，意为除非有口哨发出信号，否则火车不在小镇或者火车站做停留。
Xylophone
木琴
Xylophone is from the Greek xylo (meaning ‘relating to wood’) and phone (‘sound’). Other English words using the xylo prefix include xylophagous (feeding on or boring into wood) and xylography (the art of engraving on wood or printing from woodblocks).
木琴源自希腊语xylo（意为“和木头相关”）和phone（‘声音’）。其他的英语单词用xylo作为前缀，包括食木的（以木为食或钻进木头里）和木板术（在木头上雕刻的艺术，或用木板印刷）。
Yunluo
云锣
Yunluo is a traditional Chinese instrument, and is a set of around ten small tuned gongs mounted in a wooden frame. The name literally means ‘cloud of gongs’.
云锣是一种传统的中国乐器。它由一套大约十个小型调谐锣安装在一块木框板上组成。字面上解释为“云锣”。
Zither
齐特琴
Zither comes from the German Zither, from Latin cithara – which, in turn, comes from the Greek kithara, denoting a kind of harp.
齐特琴源自德语Zither，Zither起源于自拉丁语cithara，而cithara源自希腊语kithara，表示一种竖琴。