harpsichord
harpsichord
French
“Surprisingly, harpsichord was first a French name for a plucked keyboard.”
The English word harpsichord came through French in the late 1500s. In French, the instrument name appears as harpechorde and harpsichord. The parts point to harpe "harp" and corde "string." That fits the action: a key plucks a string.
In Italian, a related form is cembalo or clavicembalo, recorded in the 1500s. German used Kielklavier and later Cembalo, while French kept harpsichord. English borrowed the French word around 1597, keeping the final d. The spelling fixed as harpsichord by the 1600s.
The older French harpe comes from Germanic harpa, known in Old English as hearpe. The French corde goes back to Latin chorda, from Greek khordē "gut string." Both name the material and function of the instrument. The compound labels a harp-like set of strings played from a keyboard.
By the 1700s, the word was standard in English music writing. Composers like François Couperin in Paris and Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig wrote for it. The instrument's name stayed as the standard term even after the piano rose in the late 1700s. Today harpsichord names the historic instrument and its modern recreations.
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Today
Harpsichord is a keyboard instrument whose keys pluck strings rather than strike them. It is a standard term in music history, performance practice, and instrument making.
In modern English it names the historic Baroque instrument and its reconstructions. Plucked keys, bright tone.
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