[f. It. accord-are to attune an instrument, to play in unison: the termination imitates words like clarion.] A portable musical hand-instrument invented in 1829 by Damian at Vienna (Grove), consisting of a small pair of bellows and a range of keys, which on being pressed admit wind to metal reeds.
1831. Harmonicon, IX. I. 56. The accordion is about nine inches long, four wide, and about the same in depth; not unlike a small tea-caddy in appearance.
1842. Dickens, in Forster’s Life, III. iv. 105. I have bought another accordion. The steward lent me one on the passage out and I regaled the ladies’ cabin with my performances.
1864. Engel, Music Anc. Nat., 18. Each of these tubes contains a small metallic tongue, like the so-called free-reed stops of our organ, or like our accordion.
1878. Prout, in Grove, Dict. Music., I. 40. The æolina may be regarded as the first germ of the Accordion and Concertina.
