accordion
/əˈkoɹ.di.ən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.09 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A box-shaped musical instrument played by compressing or expanding its bellows while pressing its buttons or its keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel (reeds).
noun
A vertical list of items that can be individually expanded and collapsed to reveal their contents.
Example Sentences
- "A disreputable accordion that had a leak somewhere and breathed louder than it squawked."
- "See also: telescoping"
- ""Accordion" skirts are named from the musical instrument of that title, because the peculiar plaiting draws out and falls together again, in the same kind of folds, and with the same effect."
- "During the 1980s, accordion skirts became a popular style. Near the end of one winter season, I found a suit with a blazer-style jacket and an accordion-pleated skirt on sale at one of Birmingham's better department stores and placed it on layaway[…]"
- "[…] lugging their accordion cameras and bulky tripods from platform to hillock to ladder—even to the rooftop of a moving supply train—seeking to claim the most advantageous site for recording tomorrow's event."
- "I see myself losing you when the truth is we've just planted the pink bud of a love affair. There is no relationship here, and yet I look around this place and I have the disorienting sensation that I've been here for years. As if it's an intimate cove of my history and an accordion of memories lives here, only just beginning to unfold."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Old Latin com Latin cum Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr ~ *ḱr̥dés Proto-Italic *kord Latin cor Latin concors Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin concordāreder. Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad-der. Vulgar Latin *accordāre Old French acorder Middle French accorder French accorderdeverb. French accordbor. German Akkord German -ion German Akkordeonbor. English accordion First attested in 1831. Borrowed from German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈkoɹ.di.ən/
- British English: /əˈkɔː.diː.ən/