spinet

spinet

English

WOTD – 21 June 2009

A French-made spinet.

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Italian spinetta.

Alternative forms

• spinnet

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈspɪn.ɪt/, /spɪˈnɛt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspɪn.ɪt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt, -ɪnɪt

Noun

spinet (plural spinets)

1. (music) A short, compact harpsichord or piano.
   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind‎:

     He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam.

Translations

short, compact harpsichord

Bulgarian: клавесин m (klavesin) Catalan: espineta (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: spinet (cs) m Finnish: spinetti (fi) French: épinette (fr) f German: Spinett (de) n Hungarian: spinét Ido: espineto (io) Italian: spinetta (it) f Macedonian: спине́та m (spinéta) Norwegian: spinett n Occitan: espineta f Polish: szpinet (pl) m Portuguese: espineta f Romanian: spinetă (ro) f Russian: спине́т (ru) m (spinét) Spanish: espineta f Swedish: spinett (sv) Tagalog: espineta Walloon: please add this translation if you can

See also

• virginal

Etymology 2

Latin spīnētum. Doublet of spinney

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspɪn.ɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪnɪt

Noun

spinet (plural spinets)

1. (obsolete) A spinney.
   • 1603, Ben Jonson, The Entertainment at Althorp

     The invention was to have a Satyr lodged in a little spinet, by which her majesty and the prince were to come

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for spinet in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

Anagrams

• T-spine, in step, instep, nepits, pinest, septin, step in, step-in

---

Czech

Alternative forms

• špinet

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈspɪnɛt]
• Hyphenation: spi‧net

Noun

spinet m inan

1. (music) spinet

Declension

Declension of spinet

	singular	plural
nominative	spinet	spinety
genitive	spinetu	spinetů
dative	spinetu	spinetům
accusative	spinet	spinety
vocative	spinete	spinety
locative	spinetu, spinetě	spinetech
instrumental	spinetem	spinety

See also

• cembalo

Further reading

• spinet in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• spinet in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

---

Romanian

Etymology

From spin +‎ -et.

Noun

spinet n (plural spineturi)

1. thornbush

Declension

Declension of spinet

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) spinet	spinetul	(niște) spineturi	spineturile
genitive/dative	(unui) spinet	spinetului	(unor) spineturi	spineturilor
vocative	spinetule		spineturilor