hurdy-gurdy

[ hur-dee-gur-dee, -gur- ]

/ ˈhɜr diˈgɜr di, -ˌgɜr- /

a barrel organ or similar musical instrument played by turning a crank.

a lute- or guitar-shaped stringed musical instrument sounded by the revolution against the strings of a rosined wheel turned by a crank.

Origin of hurdy-gurdy

1740–50; variant of Scots hirdy-girdy uproar, influencedby hurly-burly

hur·dy-gur·dist, hur·dy-gur·dy·ist, noun

Once, just outside our door, I saw him standing in a crowd, watching a performing poodle attached to a hurdy-gurdy.

Novel Notes |Jerome K. Jerome
Tonio will take to the hurdy-gurdy again; him an' Puck should win money too.

Two Little Travellers |Frances Browne Arthur
This hurdy-gurdy is of the kind which the French call vielle en luth, because its body is shaped like that of the lute.

Musical Myths and Facts, Volume I (of 2) |Carl Engel
It is the modern Savoyard hurdy-gurdy, as we still more improperly term it; for the hurdy-gurdy is quite a different instrument.

Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) |Dawson Turner

A hurdy-gurdy furnished the music and the greensward was their ballroom floor.

Molly Brown's Orchard Home |Nell Speed

hurdy-gurdy

/ (ˈhɜːdɪˈɡɜːdɪ) /

any mechanical musical instrument, such as a barrel organ

a medieval instrument shaped like a viol in which a rosined wheel rotated by a handle sounds the strings

C18: rhyming compound, probably of imitative origin