mouth organ
1
5.6
- noun
- /maʊθ ˈɔrɡən/
- UK
:
armónica
- Most of my family are quite musical, but I must have been given the short end of that stick; about all I could ever play was my mouth organ.
- play the mouth organ
Examples
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Someone danced and Grandpa Vanderhof sat down and played a mouth organ.
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I mean, come on up here and play my mouth organ for me.
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Playing my mouth organ in the rain.
Fiction book (1993) -
I'm not bad on the mouth organ.
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And I always loaned you that mouth organ whenever you was in mind to blow.
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Played a mouth organ?
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He performed a beautiful melody on his mouth organ at the local café.
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The child learned to play the mouth organ during music class at school.
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I enjoy relaxing on weekends while playing my mouth organ by the river.
Synonyms
35
2.9
A small rectangular musical instrument played by blowing or drawing air through holes
1
3.1
An instrument that makes sound when you blow air through it, like a flute or trumpet
1
5.6
A small wind instrument you play by blowing and drawing air through reeds
1
6.3
A small instrument you play by holding it to your mouth and blowing into holes
A wind instrument that makes sound when air moves a thin reed, like an accordion or harmonica
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun-noun compound is compositional: 'organ' signals a musical instrument and 'mouth' specifies that it is played with the mouth, so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a musical instrument used with the mouth (i.e., a harmonica). This modifier pattern is common and cross-linguistically plausible, making the meaning directly derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Mouth organ may come from a simple image: mouth, because you play it with your mouth, and organ, because it has many small reeds like a tiny 'organ'. So the name came to mean a small, hand-held instrument you play with your mouth.