flute
See also: flûte and flûté
English
Pronunciation
A side-blown flute (noun sense 1).
A recorder, sometimes also called a flute (noun sense 2).
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Champagne in a classic flute (noun sense 3).
Baguettes or flutes (noun sense 6).
- enPR: floo͞t, IPA(key): /fluːt/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -uːt
Etymology 1
From Middle English fleute, floute, flote, from Old French flaute, from Provençal flaut, of uncertain origin. Perhaps ultimately from three possibilities:
- Blend of Provencal flaujol (“flageolet”) + laut (“lute”)
- From Latin flātus (“blowing”), from flāre (“to blow”)
- Imitative.
Doublet of flauta and fluyt.
Noun
flute (plural flutes)
- A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of holes that produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin.
- 1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, OCLC 43265629, page 217:
- The breathing flute's ſoft notes are heard around, / And the ſhril trumpets mix their ſilver ſound; / The vaulted roofs vvith echoing muſic ring, / Theſe touch the vocal ſtops, and thoſe the trembling ſtring.
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- (colloquial) A recorder, also a woodwind instrument.
- A glass with a long, narrow bowl and a long stem, used for drinking wine, especially champagne.
- A lengthwise groove, such as one of the lengthwise grooves on a classical column, or a groove on a cutting tool (such as a drill bit, endmill, or reamer), which helps to form both a cutting edge and a channel through which chips can escape
- (architecture, firearms) A semicylindrical vertical groove, as in a pillar, in plaited cloth, or in a rifle barrel to cut down the weight.
- A long French bread roll, baguette[1].
- An organ stop with a flute-like sound.
- A shuttle in weaving tapestry etc.
Synonyms
- (as a specific instrument, a transverse, side-blown flute): Western concert flute
- (as a general category of musical instruments): edge-blown aerophone
Meronyms
- (music): fipple, labium
Derived terms
- devil's flute
- Divje Babe flute
- en flute
- English flute
- eunuch flute
- flute-player
- flute stop
- German flute
- hyperbass flute
- Irish flute
- nose flute
- octave flute
- onion flute
- pan flute
- shepherd's flute
- skin flute
- transverse flute
- vertical flute
- vessel flute
- Western concert flute
- whistle and flute
Related terms
- flageolet
Descendants
- → Irish: fliúit
- → Welsh: ffliwt
Translations
woodwind instrument
|
glass
|
helical groove going up a drill bit
|
architecture: vertical groove in a pillar
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See also
- bansuri
References
- 1858, Peter Lund Simmonds, The Dictionary of Trade Products
- 1999. How to Love Your Flute: A Guide to Flutes and Flute Playing. Mark Shepard. Pg. 6.
Verb
fluted pillars
flute (third-person singular simple present flutes, present participle fluting, simple past and past participle fluted)
- (intransitive) To play on a flute.
- (intransitive) To make a flutelike sound.
- 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water
- The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there.
- 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water
- (transitive) To utter with a flutelike sound.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:
- “Oh, there's my precious Poppet,” said Phyllis, as a distant barking reached the ears. “He's asking for his dinner, the sweet little angel. All right, darling, Mother's coming,” she fluted, and buzzed off on the errand of mercy.
-
- (transitive) To form flutes or channels in (as in a column, a ruffle, etc.); to cut a semicylindrical vertical groove in (as in a pillar, etc.).
Related terms
- champagne flute
- flautist
- fluted (adjective)
Translations
to play flute
|
to make a flutelike sound
|
to utter with flutelike sound
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to form flutes
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Etymology 2
Compare French flûte (“a transport”)?, Dutch fluit.
Noun
flute (plural flutes)
- A kind of flyboat; a storeship.
Further reading
flute on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Flute in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /flyt/
Audio (file)
Noun
flute f (plural flutes)
- post-1990 spelling of flûte
Further reading
- “flute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
German
Verb
flute
- inflection of fluten:
- first-person singular present
- first/third-person singular subjunctive I
- singular imperative
Italian
Etymology
From flûte, from French flûte, from Old French fleüte, from Old Occitan flaut.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈflut/
- Rhymes: -ut
- Hyphenation: flùte
Noun
flute m (invariable)
- flute (type of glass)
- Synonyms: flûte, fluttino