the.com/instrument
a tool for surgery, science, or seduction — context decides which strings get pulled
means a tool or device used to do precise work, make music, or measure something — and figuratively, the means by which a thing is accomplished.
from From Latin 'instrumentum,' meaning a tool, implement, or equipment — built from 'instruere,' 'to build up, arrange, equip,' which itself stacks 'in-' (upon) onto 'struere' (to pile, build). So at its root an instrument is something you've set in order to get a job done — a sibling of 'structure' and 'construct.' English took it through Old French in the medieval period, and over centuries it branched into legal instruments, scientific instruments, and musical ones, all sharing that original sense of a carefully arranged means to an end.
- oldest known
- A bone flute dates back 40,000 years
- legal sense
- Contracts are called instruments without a single note
- space music
- Voyager carries a golden record of Earth's instruments
- theremin trick
- It is played without ever being touched
- word origin
- From Latin meaning to equip or build up
stradivarius violin — antonio stradivari crafted ~1,000 violins in cremona, italy between 1666-1737, now worth millions
theremin — lev theremin invented this electronic instrument in russia in 1920, played without touching it
glass harmonica — benjamin franklin invented it in 1761, produces ethereal tones by rubbing wet fingers on rotating glass bowls
hurdy gurdy — medieval string instrument using a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel to bow multiple strings simultaneously