Oboe

Oboe

Noun · /ˈəʊ.bəʊ/

Definition

A woodwind instrument with a conical bore, played with a double reed; it has a penetrating, nasal tone quality and is one of the principal instruments of the orchestra, typically serving as the tuning reference for the orchestra before performance.

Origin

From French hautbois (high wood: haut, high + bois, wood) — the instrument being characterised by its high-pitched, penetrating tone and its construction from wood. The French hautbois entering English as hoboy or hautboy in the sixteenth century, then shortened and altered to oboe in the eighteenth century under Italian influence (Italian oboe from the French). The instrument itself developing in France in the mid-seventeenth century from the shawm — an older outdoor double-reed instrument — refined into the indoor orchestral oboe by the Hotteterre family of instrument makers in Paris around 1660.