Echoplex

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A technological apparatus that creates sound duplications with intervals
2. An instrument that records and plays back sounds with a slight delay to create layered echoes
3. A machine designed to capture audio and replay it after a short pause, generating repeated sound effects

Etymology: The echoplex is a machine, and its name is a plain piece of modern coinage: "echo" joined to "-plex," a combining element borrowed from Latin "plexus" and "complex." The "-plex" ending is the same one found in "duplex" and "multiplex," where it signals a device that folds several functions into one unit. So the name tells you what the machine does in its own terms, producing echoes, with the suffix hinting at its layered or multiple workings. The "echo" half comes from Greek "ēchō," the name of a nymph in myth who was cursed to repeat only the last words spoken to her. Its sound-reflecting sense in English dates back to Old English-era writing, long before any electronic device. The word's story here is therefore less about a long linguistic journey than about a classical name for a natural phenomenon being attached to a mechanical invention.

Synonyms: echo, reverberation