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I think most English native speakers would probably think of human bodily organs before the musical instrument, without context. I definitely did. Apparently t

by 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.