lagerphone

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noun

A generally homemade percussion instrument consisting of crown cap beer bottle tops loosely nailed to a pole (often a broom handle) and a board mounted cross-ways on the pole (the head of the broom), and played by striking the pole on the ground or with a stick, by drawing the serrated stick across the pole, or by shaking the instrument.

First used 1952.Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounlagerphone (plural lagerphones)

plural lagerphones

  1. AustraliaentertainmentA generally homemade percussion instrument consisting of crown cap beer bottle tops loosely nailed to a pole (often a broom handle) and a board mounted cross-ways on the pole (the head of the broom), and played by striking the pole on the ground or with a stick, by drawing the serrated stick across the pole, or by shaking the instrument.First known use 1952.

    Our three piece band consisted of Robyn on lagerphone, me on guitar and a Norwegian guitar player called Tore Nielsen.

    2011, Chris Buch, Hello Sunshine: A Blitz Kid′s Journey to the Sunshine State, page 227
    2 more examples

    1991, Experimental Musical Instruments, Volumes 7-8, page 19, In Dunsan Makavejev′s film “The Coca-Cola Kid” (1984) the country band (Conways Carnival) performing “Waltzing Matilda” includes a lagerphone player who, in addition to hitting the stick against the ground strikes it with a stick swung in mock-bowing fashion.

    2003, John Shepherd et al. (editors), “Lagerphone”, entry in Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II: Performance and Production, page 379, In its modern form the lagerphone is of Australian origin and is a percussive instrument that produces a rhythmic effect similar to that of the tambourine.

Origin

  1. Englishlager
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  3. Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
  4. Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
  5. Englishlagerphone

From lager + -phone.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

lagerphone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lagerphone

MLA

“lagerphone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lagerphone. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lagerphone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lagerphone.

Source: lagerphone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.