shawm

American  

[shawm] / ʃɔm /

noun

1. an early musical woodwind instrument with a double reed: the forerunner of the modern oboe.

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shawm British  

/ ʃɔːm /

noun

1. music a medieval form of the oboe with a conical bore and flaring bell, blown through a double reed

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Etymology

Origin of shawm

1300–50; Middle English schalme < Middle French chaume < Latin calamus stalk, reed < Greek kálamos reed; replacing Middle English schallemele < Middle French chalemel ( see chalumeau)

Example Sentences

Greenberg dressed his players in medieval garb and used original instruments, mostly odd-looking woodwinds with such names as zink, shawm and Rauschpfeife.

From Time Magazine Archive

One special find: a shawm, the 16th century forerunner of the oboe.

From Time Magazine Archive

As for "The Old Castle," it sounds like a caravan of balalaika players pursuing an Arabian shawm virtuoso.

From Time Magazine Archive

Shaw's wife, one of the world's most martyred women, quietly disagreed, led Shaw to a dictionary and pointed to "shawm ... an old-fashioned wind instrument long since passed out of common use."

From Time Magazine Archive

The shawm was the earliest one of its kind ever discovered and had an extra hole for the thumb, giving it a wider musical range than later models.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler