Plenty of people know what an oboe is and can tell you it’s called an oboe, but not many know why it’s called an oboe. The word doesn’t give any obvious clues, we’ve just been taught to associate it with the instrument. It must have come from somewhere, though, and so I’ve decided to find out where it came from, as well as when and why.
The English word “oboe” as well spell and pronounce it today was introduced into our language in approximately 1770. It was derived from the French “hautbois”, a merging of two words – “haut”, meaning loud and high-pitched and bois meaning woodwind.
The oboe was invented some time in the mid 17th century, but this does not necessarily mean that the word itself was invented at the same time. There have, in fact, been a lot of variations on the word which I’ll talk about here. There are several things to consider when looking into the etymology of a word, which I will list below and use as a guideline when writing this post. They are:
- Which parts of the world use the term?
- Is the word still used as its original meaning?
- When is the first known usage of the word?
- Are there any obvious words the word in question could be derived from?
I’ll use each of these bullet points to help me to draw some conclusions on the origin of the word “oboe”. I’ll start by thinking about when the term was first used. I’ll also talk about what the word itself means and how it came to refer to the instrument. I’ll also think about where the term originated and which countries now use some variation on this word.
When was the first known use of the term “oboe”?
The word “oboe” as we spell and pronounce it today is thought to have been introduced into the English language in around 1770, coming from the Italian word “oboè”. The meaning of the word has, as far as anyone is aware, always been the musical instrument, i.e., it hasn’t taken a pre-existing word as its name.
The oboe has changed quite significantly since its invention, however, the name remains the same. An oboe was originally a double-reed instrument, made of wood, as it still is today, however, the reed is now much more sophisticated and the bulk of the keywork was added much later.
Where did the term “oboe” originate?
To understand the etymology of a word, we must also consider where the term came from. In the case of the oboe, it seems to be of French origin. The French word, “hautbois”, is a compound word, made up of the word “haut”, meaning high-pitched or loud and “bois”, meaning wood or woodwind. We can see why the instrument was named this, being a high-pitched woodwind instrument.
The transition from “hautbois” to “oboe” is thought to come purely from the sound of the word. The term “oboe” was then adopted throughout Europe, possibly first in Italy. There doesn’t appear to be any earlier use of the term before the French. For a while, however, the English term for an oboe was “hoboy” before being changed shortly after to oboe.
Which parts of the world use the term “oboe” or a similar derivation?
The term “oboe” as we pronounce and spell it, is used only in English speaking countries. However, there are many variations and derivations of the word used around the world today. It appears to be the case that all Latin-based languages use a variation on the word “oboe” – originating from the French “hautbois”. Some examples of this are the Italian “oboè” and Spanish “oboe” (pronounced slightly differently to the English).
The Germanic languages also have the same French influence. The German word for oboe is also “oboe”. The Scandinavian languages also have the same origin. The Finnish and Swedish words for oboe are both “oboe”. The Japanese translation of oboe is also based on the Latin word.
It seems to be the case that most Asian languages also have the same origin for the word. An exception I have found is Chinese. The phonetic translation of oboe from Chinese is Shuanghuangguan, not similar to the other languages at all. It seems to be the case that the Chinese name for most musical instruments is significantly different to the majority of languages, however, so this is not necessarily surprising.
It does appear to be the case that the term originated in Europe, despite most countries in the world adopting the same word. The oboe was invented in Europe – in France, and the name was invented alongside it. As it became used more widely in other countries, its name was also transferred and became the standard word in languages around the world.
Has the word oboe kept its original meaning?
If we consider the history of the oboe, we find that there were many double reed instruments that came before it that it was based on. The first double reed instrument is thought to be the aulos, which dates back to around 5000BC. The first time the term oboe was used, however, was in the 17th century.
The oboe did not originally have keywork. The keywork was developed later – in the 1800s. Even now, there are multiple different keywork arrangements for the oboe and different players have different preferences. The term oboe has referred to all versions of the oboe developed since the term was first introduced in the 17th century. In that sense, there has been some change to the original meaning of the term, however, the word has never been used to refer to anything other than the double reed instrument.
Summary
To sum this post up, the first known use of the word oboe was in the 17th century. The origin of the term “oboe” is the French word “hautbois”. This literally means high-pitched wood. The word “oboe” comes simply from the pronunciation of the word. The term “hoboy” was also used to refer to the oboe in the English speaking language, before “oboe” was adopted. The term “oboe” is an English word, however, it is used in many similar forms around the world today.