Accordion

How to spell accordion

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce accordion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accordion mean?

1. nounA portable musical instrument played by squeezing a bellows while pressing keys or buttons.

Accordion in a sentence

• The busker played a lively tune on a battered accordion.

• She carried the heavy accordion in a padded case to the folk festival.

Where does accordion come from?

Language of origin: Italian

The accordion takes its name from the German word Akkord, meaning a musical 'chord' or 'agreement of sounds', which itself goes back to the Italian accordare, 'to tune' or 'to bring into harmony'. That Italian verb descends from the Latin accordare, built on ad 'to' and cor, cordis 'heart', so the original idea was hearts coming together in agreement, the same sense that gives us the everyday word 'accord'. The instrument was patented in Vienna in 1829 by the maker Cyrill Demian, who coined 'Accordion' because pressing a single button sounded a whole ready-made chord. English adopted the name almost immediately as the squeezebox spread across Europe. The double c followed by a single d is the spelling trap, and it helps to remember the buried word 'accord' sitting inside it, the very thing the instrument was named for.

How the word is built

• accord (agreement, chord)
• -ion (noun suffix); from Italian accordare 'to tune, bring into agreement'