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hautboy

[hoh-boi, oh-boi]
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noun
  1. oboe1(def 1).
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Origin of hautboy

1565–75; < Middle French hautbois, equivalent to haut high (see haughty) + bois wood (see bush1)
Related formshaut·boy·ist, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hautboy

Historical Examples

  • Nearly allied to these are the clarionet, the hautboy, and bassoon.

    Popular Technology; Volume 2

    Edward Hazen

  • The young Lord Hautboy, her eldest son, was now just of age.

    Marion Fay

    Anthony Trollope

  • The Hautboy people were her own relations,—not her husband's.

    Marion Fay

    Anthony Trollope

  • Hautboy was very eager to let everybody know the truth at the Pandemonium.

    Marion Fay

    Anthony Trollope

  • Poor Hautboy almost cried as he gave this account of his own misfortune.

    Marion Fay

    Anthony Trollope

British Dictionary definitions for hautboy

hautboy

noun
  1. Also called: hautbois strawberry, haubois (ˈəʊbɔɪ) a strawberry, Fragaria moschata, of central Europe and Asia, with large fruit
  2. an archaic word for oboe
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Word Origin

C16: from French hautbois, from haut high + bois wood, of Germanic origin; see bush 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hautboy

n.

1570s, from French hautbois "high wood" (15c.; see oboe). The "high" is haut in its secondary sense of "high-pitched." Frequently nativized as hoboy.

This Pageaunt waz clozd vp with a delectable harmony of Hautboiz, Shalmz, Coronets, and such oother looud muzik. [Robert Laneham, 1575]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper