Etymology

armonica

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Today it means: A musical instrument made of blown-glass bowls mounted on a spindle turned originally by a foot pedal, and played with wetted fingers, producing an ethereal sound. Technically, it is a crystallophone. Full definition →

Italian armonia
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The story

  1. Italian · derived fromarmonia“harmony”
  2. English todayarmonica

Coined by Benjamin Franklin, its inventor; built on Italian armonia (“harmony”). Glass harmonica is a corruption of Franklin's original word, a back-formation influenced by harmonica (a reed instrument invented sixty years later).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.