Mus. [ad. 16th c. It. contrabasso (now contrabb-), F. contrebasse: see CONTRA- 4, and BASS. Occasionally used in the It. and F. forms, or adapted as COUNTERBASE.]
1. The largest instrument of the violin class, the DOUBLE-BASS, used to add the lower octave to the bass in the orchestra.
1598–1611. Florio, Contrabasso, a counterbase, be it voice, string, or instrument.
1813. T. Busby, Dict. Mus. (ed. 4), Contra-Basso (Ital.), the instrument called the Double Bass. Contra-Bass (Ital.), the lower Bass.
1867. Cornh. Mag., Jan., 28. The cornet is a contrabasso, the ophicleide … becomes a tenor, the trombones are sharp violins.
1879. Scribn. Mag., XIX. 903/1. This term [‘the strings’] is understood to mean … the violins, the violas, the violoncellos and the contra-basses or double basses.
2. Applied to instruments of other kinds taking a similar part; chiefly attrib. as contrabass posaune a kind of trombone, contrabass tuba the bombardon. (Grove, Dict. Mus.)
1834. Mus. Library, Nov. Suppl., As a contra-basso to the trombones, it [the double-bass ophicleide] will not be found less useful.
