Jew's harp

The word harp is often applied to a wide variety of instruments in English, including many (such as this one) that are not "harps" in the most specific sense. The origin of Jew's is uncertain: it is widely accepted that the instrument has no musicological or etymological connection with Jews and the word was capitalized due to the mistaken belief in a connection. Some have connected it to the Cleveland dialectal gew-gaw, related to the Old Norse giga, compare modern Swedish giga, Danish gige, German Geige (“fiddle”).^[1] Others have suggested a connection with jaws,^[2] the synonym jaw harp may have therefore come first. Other theories point to French jeu-trompe (literally “toy-trumpet”),^[3] compare Jew's-trump.

Jew's harp (plural Jew's harps)

1. A musical instrument consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo “tongue” attached to a frame. This tongue is placed in the performer's mouth and plucked with the finger to produce a note of constant pitch. Melodies can be created by changing the shape of the mouth and causing different overtones.
   • 1850, T. S. Arthur, “Deacon Smith and his Violin”, in Sketches of Life and Character‎^[1], Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 70:

     The lad, his son, had obtained a Jew's-harp, and learned to play upon it the profane airs of "Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," "St. Patrick's Day," and "Auld Lang Syne."

• guimbarde
• mouth harp
• mouth organ
• Jew's-trump and trump
• Judaic harp

• Jew's harpist

• jew harps