3 ms·

Oh, musical instruments. Nevermind.

• yegle 3y ago
  As someone whose first language is not English this title confuses me a lot. Similarly I very recently learned the name of the flute-like instrument is called "recorder" :-(
  • schoen 3y ago
    I think most English native speakers would probably think of human bodily organs before the musical instrument, without context. I definitely did. Apparently the multiple meanings were already present to some extent as far back as Ancient Greek: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BD%84%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%BD#Ancient_Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BD%84%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%B1%C... It's kind of like '(useful) thingy'. > Similarly I very recently learned the name of the flute-like instrument is called "recorder" :-( That one bugged me a lot in elementary school, as I kept thinking "if it's called a recorder, it should record something!".
    • OJFord 3y ago
      It does allow you to record - in the now obsolete sense of repeating or practicing; 'record a tune' hasn't always meant (or further implied) 'to a storage medium for automatic playback'. Which makes sense as they're generally practice instruments, you don't have bands or orchestras with recorder-players, we (at least in the UK) play them in school music lessons without having specific instrument lessons in it or anything else; then some want to play wind instruments and have lessons in flute or clarinet or trumpet or whatever, but not recorder.
  • grishka 3y ago
    Doesn't every language have quirks like this? My native language, Russian, has the same problem with the word "organ", but at least its two meanings are pronounced with different stressed syllables. There's also the word "замок", can mean a lock or a castle, again depending on which syllable is stressed. > flute-like instrument is called "recorder" TIL. This name makes no sense to me.