Music Cataloging at Yale Music cataloging resources

When is a "flute" not a flute?

Where does the English name "recorder" come from?
from the New Harvard Dictionary of Music: Recorder (French: flûte à bec, flute douce; German: Blockflöte, Schnabel flote, Italian: diretto, flauto dolce; Spanish: flauta de pico) The English name perhaps derives from the Italian ricordo (a keepsake)

from the New Grove Dictionary of Music Instruments: The derivation of the name recorder is uncertain. (To "record," in the sense of "to sing like a bird" may well derive from the name of the instrument, and not the other way round.) The name is probably derived from the Latin recordari: to think over, call to mind, "remember," or the Italian ricordo: a souvenir or memento.