accordion

accordion

English

A piano accordion

Alternative forms

• accordeon (dated)

Etymology

First attested in 1831. From German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈkɔ(ɹ).di.ˌən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ə.ˈkɔɹ.di.ən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ac‧cord‧i‧on

Noun

accordion (plural accordions)

1. A box-shaped musical instrument with means of keys and buttons, whose tones are generated by play of the wind from a squeezed bellows upon free metallic reeds.
   • 1869, Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad:

     A disreputable accordion that had a leak somewhere and breathed louder than it squawked.

2. (graphical user interface) A vertical list of items that can be individually expanded and collapsed to reveal their contents.
3. (figurative) A set of items (concepts, links, or otherwise) that can be packed and unpacked cognitively, or their representation as a set of virtual objects. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   See also: telescoping

Synonyms

• squeezebox

Derived terms

• accordion file
• accordionist
• accordion pleat
• button accordion
• piano accordion

 

Descendants

• → Irish: acordán

Translations

a small, portable, keyed wind instrument

Afrikaans: akkordeon, trekklavier Albanian: fizarmonikë (sq) f Amharic: አኮርዲዮን (ʾäkordiyon) Arabic: أَكُورْدِيُون‎ m (ʾakurdiyūn) Armenian: ակորդեոն (hy) (akordeon) Asturian: acordión f Azerbaijani: akkordeon Basque: akordeoi; eskusoinu Belarusian: акардэо́н m (akardeón) Bengali: অ্যাকর্ডিয়ন (ôẏakôrḍiyônô), বাদ্যযন্ত্রবিশেষ (badẏĵôntrôbiśeṣ) Breton: akordeon m Bulgarian: хармо́ника f (harmónika), акордео́н (bg) m (akordeón) Burmese: အကော်ဒီယံ (my) (a.kaudiyam) Catalan: acordió (ca) m Chinese: Cantonese: 手風琴, 手风琴 (sau2 fung1 kam4) Mandarin: 手風琴／手风琴 (zh) (shǒufēngqín) Min Nan: 手風琴 (zh-min-nan), 手风琴 (chhiú-hong-khîm / chhiú-hoang-khîm) Wu: 手風琴, 手风琴 (seu fon jjin) Czech: akordeon m, harmonika (cs) f Danish: trækharmonika c, harmonika (da) c, akkordeon (da) n (with free-bass system) Dutch: accordeon (nl) n, harmonica (nl) m Esperanto: akordiono Estonian: akordion (et); lõõtspill Faroese: harmonika f Finnish: harmonikka (fi), haitari (fi), hanuri (fi) French: accordéon (fr) m Galician: acordeón (gl) m Georgian: აკორდეონი (aḳordeoni) German: Akkordeon (de) n, Ziehharmonika (de) f, Handharmonika f, Handorgel f, (regional) Quetsche (de) f, (slangy, humorous) Quetschkommode (de) f, Schifferklavier (de) n Greek: ακορντεόν (el) n (akornteón) Hebrew: אָקּוֹרְדִּיּוֹן‎ (he) m (akordiyón) Hindi: अकॉर्डियन (akŏrḍiyan) Hungarian: harmonika (hu), tangóharmonika (hu) Ido: akordeono (io) Indonesian: akordeon (id) Interlingua: accordion Irish: cairdín m, acordán m Italian: fisarmonica (it) f Japanese: アコーデオン (akōdeon), 手風琴 (ja) (てふうきん, tefūkin) Kazakh: аккордеон (akkordeon) Khmer: អគ័រដេអុង (ʼɑɑkɔədeeʼong) Korean: 아코디언 (ko) (akodieon), 수풍금 (supunggeum) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: akordiyon Kyrgyz: аккордеон (ky) (akkordeon) Latin: accordio f Latvian: akordeons m Lithuanian: akordeonas m Macedonian: армоника f (armonika), хармоника f (harmonika), акордео́н m (akordeón) Malay: akordion, tetarik Manx: coardeen m Maori: kōriana Mongolian: Cyrillic: баян хуур (bajan xuur), аккордеон (akkordeon) Mongolian: ᠪᠠᠶᠠᠨ ᠬᠤᠭᠤᠷ (bayan quɣur) Norman: accordéon m (Jersey) Norwegian: Bokmål: trekkspell n, trekkspill n, dragspell n, dragspill n, trekkharmonika m, harmonika m, akkordeon (no) n Nynorsk: trekkspel n, dragspel n, trekkharmonika m, harmonika m, akkordeon n Pashto: اکوردیون‎ m (akordún) Persian: آکاردئون‎ (fa) (âkârde'on) Polish: akordeon (pl) m inan, harmonia ręczna f Portuguese: acordeão (pt) m, gaita (pt) f (South Brazil), sanfona (pt) f Romanian: acordeon (ro) n Russian: гармо́ника (ru) f (garmónika), гармо́нь (ru) f (garmónʹ), аккордео́н (ru) m (akkordeón), бая́н (ru) m (baján) Scottish Gaelic: bogsa-ciùil m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: хармо̀ника f Roman: harmònika (sh) f Skolt Sami: garmaan Slovak: harmonika (sk) f, akordeón m Slovene: harmọ́nika (sl) f Spanish: acordeón (es) m Swahili: kodiani, harimuni (sw) Swedish: dragspel (sv) n, ackordeon (sv) n, ackordion (sv) n, dragharmonika (sv) c, harmonika (sv) c, handklaver (sv) n Tagalog: akordeyon, akurdyon Tajik: аккордеон (akkordeon) Thai: หีบเพลงชัก (hìip-pleeng-chák), หีบเพลง (hìip-pleeng), แอกคอร์เดียน (ɛ́k-kɔɔ-dîian) Tibetan: ལག་སྦྲེང (lag sbreng) Turkish: akordiyon (tr) Turkmen: akkordeon (tk) Tuvan: аккордеон (akkordeon) Ukrainian: акордео́н (uk) m (akordeón), гармо́нія (uk) f (harmónija) Uyghur: ئاككوردىيون‎ (akkordiyon) Uzbek: akkordeon (uz) Vietnamese: phong cầm (vi) (風琴), đàn xếp (彈疊) Volapük: tiraharmonöm Welsh: acordion m, cordion m (colloquial) Yakut: аккордеон (akkordeon) Yiddish: אַקאָרדעאָן‎ m (akordeon)

See also

• bandoneon
• concertina

Verb

accordion (third-person singular simple present accordions, present participle accordioning, simple past and past participle accordioned)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To fold up, in the manner of an accordion
   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist:

     I slit the wrapping with my pocketknife and the clothesline accordioned out in stiff loops.

   • 2000 December 29, Charles Dickinson, “Qi”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     Still in reverse, she goosed the gas and accordioned the running board a fraction of an inch more.

   • 2005, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town‎:

     It accordioned down and he tugged the shirt around it so that it came free […] .

Anagrams

• Concordia