Meanings
plural bigophones
- entertainmentAny of a series of cheap musical instruments, made to resemble orchestral instruments, that were blown in the manner of a kazoo
1 more example
Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigophones and other long-forgotten objects.
1978, Jan Romein, The Watershed of Two Eras: Europe in 1900, page 303
Origin
From French Bigot + -phone (after its French inventor Romain Bigot).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French bigophone, bigotphone
- bigophoneTranslations
- bigotphoneTranslations
Italian bigofono
- bigofonoTranslations
Cite this entry
bigophone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigophone
“bigophone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigophone. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bigophone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bigophone.
Source: bigophone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.