Also 8–9 violincello. [It. violoncello, dim. of violone: see VIOLON. Hence also Pg. violoncello, Sp. -celo, F. -celle.]
1. A large four-stringed instrument of the violin class; a bass violin. Cf. ’CELLO.
α. 1724. Short Explic. For. Wds. in Mus. Bks., Violoncello, is a Small Bass Violin, just half as big as a common Bass Violin, in Length, Breadth, and Thickness.
1742. Fr. Barsanti (title), A Collection of Old Scots Tunes, with the Bass for Violoncello or Harpsichord.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., i. 73. I know and confess that this and the violoncello are the most perfect of all stringed Instruments.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. xlix. 55. Of all the works of his life this playing on the violoncello had been the sweetest to him.
1881. C. A. Edwards, Organs, 149. If the bass string of a Violoncello be vibrated, other sounds besides that proper to the string may be detected.
β. 1773. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 271, note. Mr. Zeidler, who plays the violincello at Covent-Garden theatre.
1797. Mrs. Berkeley, Poems G. M. Berkeley, Pref. p. ccccxii. Dr. Berkeley was esteemed the finest gentleman-performer on the violincello in England.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., vi. Mr. Skimpole could play on the piano and the violincello.
2. An organ-stop having a tone similar to that of a violoncello.
1876. Hiles, Catech. Organ, ix. (1878), 63. Violoncello, an 8 feet stop, resembling in construction the Violone.
3. attrib. and Comb., as violoncello bow, player, species.
1818. Blaquiere, trans. Pananti’s Resid. Algiers, 267. The arabebbah, of the violincello species, with one string.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 246/1. One of his best violoncello bows, which are rarities, was recently sold in Paris for £44.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 12. In the violoncello players who perform solos … there is very great strain.
Hence Violoncelloing ppl. a.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. (1863), 266. One fluting brother; one fiddling ditto; a violoncelloing music-master; and a singing papa.
