Corno

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A brass instrument typically associated with orchestras and bands, characterized by its circular shape and distinctive mellow tone
2. An Italian word meaning "horn," often referring to musical horns or natural horns used in traditional settings
3. A type of musical instrument that can be either made of metal or derived from animal horn, used in various cultural contexts and musical genres

Etymology: The Italian "corno" simply means "horn", and English borrowed it in its musical sense for the brass instrument that the French horn is named after. Its ancestor is the Latin "cornu", which meant the hard, pointed growth on an animal's head and was also used for things shaped like one, such as a bow tip or a wing of an army. The same Latin root gave English "horn" through Germanic, so the two words are doublets, two forms of one word that arrived by different routes. Those routes also produced "corn" in the sense of a hard callus on the foot, which comes from the same Latin source. The meaning jump from animal horn to a hardened patch of skin is a short one, since both are tough, keratinous outgrowths, and the grain "corn" is unrelated, coming from a different Germanic root.

Synonyms: horn, corno, bugle, trumpet, horn instrument