shawm

[ shawm ]

noun

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

shawm

/ ʃɔːm /

noun

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of shawm¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of shawm¹

C14 shalmye, from Old French chalemie, ultimately from Latin calamus a reed, from Greek kalamos

Example Sentences

Cornemuse is a bagpipe; shalmye is a shawm, which was a wind-instrument, being derived from Lat.

From Project Gutenberg

A figure is given (Galpin, p. 159) of a goat playing on a shawm from a carving of the twelfth century at Canterbury.

From Project Gutenberg

The name is believed to be derived from calamaula, a reed-pipe, which was corrupted to chalem-elle and then to shawm.

From Project Gutenberg

The shawm rang out yearningly beneath the pale expanse of an unsympathetic heaven.

From Project Gutenberg

The shawm was silent, the herdsman bent questioningly over the wall and Kurwenal made answer.

From Project Gutenberg