Etymology

violin

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Today it means: A small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin and played with a bow. Full definition →

Italian violino ← Old Occitan violabor.? ← Medieval Latin *vitula
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The story

  1. Medieval Latin*vitula
  2. Old Occitanviolabor.?
  3. Italianviola
  4. Italianviolino
  5. English todayviolin

Derived from Italian violino (“little viola”), from viola + -ino.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.