[Ads-l] mouth organ, harmonicon, harmonica

Fri Sep 5 20:14:42 UTC 2025

 Today's "harmonica"/ "mouth organ" ?

1847 _Charleston [S.C.] Daily Courier_ (Oct. 11)  3:  MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS...Harmonicas or Mouth organs, Flutinas, &c.

JL

On Tue, Jan 23, 2024 at 3:55 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

>  "French harp" and "mouth organ"/ "harmonica," seemingly as synonyms. But
> they just might be panpipes:
>
> 1857 _Spiritual Telegraph_ (NYC) (Jan. 24) 3: [The spirits] said they
> would play an accordeon [sic], a banjo and a French harp, or mouth
> organ....[T]he air would be played on the accordeon and the French harp.
>
> Or even a glass harmonica?:
>
> 1865 _Democrat_ (St. Louis, Mo.) (Aug. 5) 5: His instrument is the simple
> harmonica, with which children amuse themselves in holiday seasons....Out
> of the simple harmonica, which he styles the "French harp," he brings the
> most delicious tones, and plays many of our simple airs with variations
> that would do credit to the most accomplished violinist in the city.
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, May 13, 2023 at 5:28 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 1830 Rhode-Island Republican (Jan. 14) 3: There has been brought to
>> Philadelphia, from Paris, a new musical instrument, recently invented in
>> Switzerland, and called Harmonica. It is delightfully sweet and exact, and
>> may be played with ease, and carried in the pocket. The price is three
>> dollars and a half.
>>
>> $3.50 in 1830 is said to be equivalent in buying power to $113.00 today,
>> so there might not have been too many purchasers.
>>
>> 1863 New York Herald (Dec. 10) 12 HER[R] ZIROM...produces the most
>> wonderful music on the instrument he calls the EMMELYNKA commonly known as
>> the mouth harmonica. Ibid. (Dec. 15) 1: Herr Zirom's incredible musical
>> performance on the common harmonicon, known to schoolboys as the "mouth
>> organ."
>>
>> But perhaps Zirom's "emmelynka" was no more than a set of panpipes. The
>> Marysville [Calif.] Daily Appeal (Oct. 23, 1862), p. 4, describes it as a
>> "Toy Instrument." Yet he could play on it "favorite Melodies, Airs with
>> variations, and Military marches, &c."
>>
>> JL
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 8:25 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> 1
>>>
>>> It appears that a simple predecessor of the modern harmonica was called
>>> the "aeolina" (OED: 1829), and that the word "harmonica" is borrowed from
>>> German:
>>>
>>> 1829 _Boston Traveler_ (March 17) 1: THE AEOLINA.--An elegant and very
>>> simple mode of producing delightful musical sounds. [The description speaks
>>> of a metal "plate" and blown "springs."]
>>>
>>> 1830 _Daily Chronicle_ (Phila.) (Feb. 8) 3:  HARMONICA, or AEOLINA   A
>>> further supply of this new and popular musical instrument, in a great
>>> variety of forms, received and for sale.
>>>
>>> 1830  _Evening Post_ [N.Y.] (Feb. 9) 2: The newly introduced musical
>>> toy, called the _Aeolina_ or _Mund harmonica_.
>>>
>>> 1830 _National Gazette and Literary Register_ [Phila.] (Feb. 12) 2:
>>> Instructions for the Aeolina, or Wind Harmonica, with a selection of
>>> popular melodies.
>>>
>>> 1830 _N.Y, American_ (Feb. 16) 1: Bourne, in Broadway,...has also a book
>>> out on the _Aeolina_, a new sort of mouth harp, with instructions for its
>>> use, and music adapted to its compass.
>>>
>>> 2
>>> Note the above use of "mouth harp" (OED: 1876). Cf.:
>>>
>>> 1831 _Pittsfield [Mass.] Sun_  (Feb. 3) 1: A gentleman, among a set of
>>> hunters at grass, in a park belonging to the Duke of Buccleugh, tried the
>>> effect of a small musical instrument called the mouth Aeolian harp. The
>>> horses...followed the musician.
>>>
>>> 3
>>> These seem to be true modern harmonicas (alias "French harps"):
>>>
>>> 1865 _Daily Inter-Ocean_ (Sept. 16) 3:  The shrill strains of the
>>> mouth-harp mingled with the roll of the drum.
>>>
>>> 1868 _Weekly Rescue_ (Sacramento, Cal.) 2: Master Frank Palmer, a lad
>>> ten or twelve summers old, ...played the Cincinnati hornpipe on the mouth
>>> harp, and played the bones at the same time with the left hand.
>>>
>>> 1869 _Cairo [Ill.] Bulletin_ (Sept. 23) 1: The instruments used were a
>>> single octave French mouth harp and a wheezy old hand organ.
>>>
>>> "Mouth harp" (in whatever senses) becomes relatively frequent in the
>>> 1870s.
>>>
>>> 4
>>> OED has "mouth harp" as a syn. for "Jew's-harp" uniquely from 1968.  But
>>> that may be what is meant here, considering the price (allegedly $1.87 in
>>> today's purchasing power):
>>>
>>> 1869 _Richmond Dispatch_ (May 10) 3: His "music box" ...[was] nothing
>>> more nor less than a ten-cent _mouth harp_.
>>>
>>> Since a "mouth organ" originally meant a set of panpipes, it only makes
>>> sense that a Jew's-harp should be called a "mouth harp."
>>>
>>> JL
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 6:26 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> 'Harmonica' meaning "Jew's-harp" is not in OED.
>>>>
>>>> The more I look at the various denotations "harmonica" in the 19th C.,
>>>> the more confusing it becomes.
>>>>
>>>> For ex., I found no unmistakable newspaper refs. to the playing of the
>>>> modern harmonica during the Civil War.
>>>>
>>>> And cf. this discussion: https://tinyurl.com/y6schsgp
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> JL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 8:20 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In reply to Horatius and to Jonathan Lighter, respectively:
>>>>>
>>>>> ETYMOLOGY:
>>>>>
>>>>> From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew's_harp#Etymology
>>>>> >>>>>
>>>>> There are many theories for the origin of the name Jew's harp.
>>>>> According to
>>>>> the Oxford English Dictionary, this name appears earliest in Walter
>>>>> Raleigh's Discouerie Guiana in 1596, spelled "Iewes Harp". The "jaw"
>>>>> variant is attested at least as early as 1774[8] and 1809,[9] the
>>>>> "juice"
>>>>> variant appeared only in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
>>>>>
>>>>> It has also been suggested that the name derives from the French
>>>>> "Jeu-trompe" meaning "toy-trumpet".[10] (Though in the French idiom,
>>>>> if two
>>>>> substantives are joined together, the qualifying noun is invariably the
>>>>> last.)[11]
>>>>>
>>>>> Both theories—that the name is a corruption of "jaws" or "jeu"—are
>>>>> described by the OED as "baseless and inept". The OED says that, "More
>>>>> or
>>>>> less satisfactory reasons may be conjectured: e.g. that the instrument
>>>>> was
>>>>> actually made, sold, or imported to England by Jews, or purported to
>>>>> be so;
>>>>> or that it was attributed to Jewish people, suggesting the trumps and
>>>>> harps
>>>>> mentioned in the Bible, and hence considered a good commercial
>>>>> name."[12]
>>>>> <<<<<
>>>>>
>>>>> "Not in OED" (though with the multiple levels of quotation I may be
>>>>> misinterpreting or misattributing this comment. If it is intended as
>>>>> "OED
>>>>> does not list 'Jew's-harp' as a sense of "harmonica", I apologize).
>>>>>
>>>>> It is indeed. In the Compact OED, New Edition, p. 894 (p. 232 in its
>>>>> original volume of the not-so-compact edition; I can't tell which
>>>>> volume,
>>>>> but it evidently begins at "interval"):
>>>>> >>>>>
>>>>> Jews' harp. (Also sometimes with small j.) A variant of Jews' trump,
>>>>> q.v.]
>>>>> <<<<<
>>>>> The first citation is from 1595, "R. Duddely in Hakluyt's Voy,
>>>>> III.576".
>>>>>
>>>>> Mark A. Mandel
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 3:18 AM Horatius <
>>>>> 00000e76b69c74bf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > And the "Jew's harp" name comes from the fact that the inventor is a
>>>>> Jew?
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Verzonden met ProtonMail Mobile
>>>>> >
>>>>> > -------- Oorspronkelijk bericht --------
>>>>> > Aan 18 jan. 2021 05:11, Jonathan Lighter schreef:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > > 'Harmonica'
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > 1866: OED
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > 1863 _New-York Herald_ (Dec. 15) 1: The common harmonicon, known to
>>>>> > > schoolboys as the "mouth organ."
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > ("Harmonicon"; 1876, OED.)
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > There are earlier exx., but they're at least as likely to refer to
>>>>> > panpipes
>>>>> > > or even Jew's-harps.
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > II
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > Harmonica
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > 'Jew's-harp'
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > Not in OED.
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > 1825 _Caledonian Mercury_ [Edinburgh) (June 16) 2: The Jews [sic]
>>>>> Harp
>>>>> > ...
>>>>> > > A.M. Eulenstein, from Heilbron, has invented a new instrument, or
>>>>> rather
>>>>> > > improved the little instrument already spoken of, which he calls
>>>>> the
>>>>> > Mouth
>>>>> > > Harmonica, on which he has been performing various pieces of
>>>>> music, much
>>>>> > to
>>>>> > > the astonishment and delight of numerous private circles.
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > JL
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>>> truth."
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>> truth."
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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