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Vorlus-snorlus numbers
Word of the week: A strangely poetic, archaic Gloucestershire term meaning haphazard, pertaining to a a person who acts at random, possibly a corruption of the Latin term nolens volens, meaning neither willing nor unwilling, related to the word willy-nilly
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Alan Rickman as whe wheedling, warzling Obadiah Slope in a BBC TV production of The Barchester Chronicles
Word of the week: An evocative Old English-origin dialect word for sycophantic flattery, pertaining to sly persuasion for favours, it derives from two old English words – wær meaning cautious, and sealm meaning speech
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Xyloid art
Word of the week: An adjective meaning woody, or ligneous, and springing from the Ancient Greek xúlon for wood, and oeidḗs for form, the origin for xylophone, it’s one that sprouts many more roots and branches in our language
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Turkish musician Görkem Şen playing his invention, the Yaybahar
Word of the week: Resonant, vivid, and otherworldly in sound, this extraordinary musical instrument was invented by the Turkish musician Görkem Şen who describes it as a “real-time acoustic string synthesizer”
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Pages 150-151 of Robert Recorde’s 1557 work The Whetstone of Witte describes the cubic term of zenzizenzizenzic
Word of the week: We return to the alphabet’s end with a word that’s as wonderfully weird, yet buzzily beautifully in sound as it is obscure and obsolete – an antiquated mathematical term meaning the eighth power of a number x, where x is multiplied by itself 8 times
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Meadowlark at first light
Word of the week: An evocative, poetic French word adopted into English language in the 17th century meaning a song or poem set, or performed, at dawn or evoking daybreak, most often about lovers separating – and the flipside of a serenade
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More than just much rice …
In linguistics, an evocative, descriptive compound word, from Sanscrit, often comprising an adjective then noun, or two nouns, in which the first part (A) describes the second (B), to create a word describing something else which has a “B that is A”
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Callithumpian band
Word of the week: An evocative adjectival form of callithump, commonly used from 1836 in the American mid-West, describing a parade or band of noisemakers, but also originally an 18th-century British dialect noun for a group who made a rumpus on election days in southern England
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A selection of daxophone tongues
Word of the week: A uniquely versatile friction idiophone instrument that produces sound through the vibration of wooden slats played by finger touch and bow, producing an extraordinary range of animal and vocal-style noises, its name derived from the German word Dachs, meaning badger
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The erxian takes many years to master
Word of the week: One of China’s most important traditional bowed instruments with an unmistakable sound, dating back at least 2,000 years, with a hardwood neck and a rounded bamboo soundbox and two strings, it looks simple, but takes years to master
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The firikyiwa can be played on one hand
Word of the week: Pronounced free-chee-wah, and best known in Ghana and other parts of West Africa, this is a two-piece single-handed pod bell percussion instrument, with a round hollow iron shell worn on the index finger struck by the ring on the thumb
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Ghungroo ankle bells
Word of the week: The word for a small bell, it describes one of many to form ghungroos, a musical anklet tied just above the feet of classical Indian dancers to accentuate and accompany complex footwork
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Hyōshigi will regularly feature in Japanese kabuki theatre to call attention to the audience
Word of the week: Hyōshigi (拍子木) describes a simple, clapping percussion instrument with a sound evocative of Kabuki theatre and other Japanese traditions – two pieces of hardwood or bamboo connected by a thin ornamental rope – they bang together, sometimes with increasing speed.
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Don’t look back in anger, but inanga
Word of the week: A trough-style traditional zither played in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the soundboard with concave sides and six to eight string pitches on the pentatonic scale, its evocative plucked sound is often accompanied by poetic, sometimes whispered song narratives
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Milin Tulankar playing Jal Tarang
Word of the week: Also known as jal tarang (Hindi: जलतरंग) meaning waves of water this is a traditional, Indian subcontinent percussion instrument dating back to the 4th–6th centuries CE, comprising up to 22 porcelain or glass bowls filled with water and struck with sticks
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The k'lông pút is not played by touch, but handclaps forcing air through each tube
Word of the week: Also simplified to klong put, this Vietnamese traditional xylophone, played by Bahnar people, comes with a difference – instead of its bamboo tubes being struck, they are not touched at all – resonant pitches are produced by hand-clapping
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Sets of launeddas from Sardinia
Word of the week: A traditional polyphonic Italian reed instrument from Sardinia, also known as the triple pipe or clarinet, comprising three canes that requires circular breathing to produce drone and tuneful melodies
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Probably the largest Mokugyo fish drum in the world, located at Hasedera Temple in Kamakura, Japan
Word of the week: Seeking a calming, meditative sound? This wooden fish-decorated wooden drum, known also as mokugyo in Japan, is an ancient instrument with a deep spiritual significance in Buddhism used in ceremonies and rituals
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Romanian nai virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir
Word of the week: This Romanian 17th-century panpipe is a mainstay of traditional folk and classical music, wide in range and resonant, it is made up of at least 20 pipes made of bamboo or reed in the diatonic scale of C or G, and emits a clean, distinctive sound
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That’ll be the degu: from the octodont genus
Word of the week: Meaning, in Latin, having eight teeth, but also a general term for particular groups furry mammals who are part of the Octodontidae or Octodon genus of rodents of South America, particularly the degu
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