DisputedOrigin is disputed
English horn
noun · first attested 18th century
Neither English nor a horn.
An alto oboe with a bulb-shaped bell and a bent metal crook, pitched a fifth below the oboe.
53.0000°N -1.0000°W · Q21
Record
- Relationship
- Origin is disputed
- Confidence
- DisputedCompeting explanations remain live.
- Attested
- 18th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
England
- In English
English horn
The instrument appears in central Europe around 1720 under the Italian name corno inglese, and the English half may be a garbling of angled, since early examples were bent, or of angelic, from paintings of angels playing curved horns. No version of the story begins in England, and it is a woodwind rather than a brass instrument.
Also pinned to England
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