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shawm or shalm (SHAWM) - n. a medieval double-reed woodwind instrument with a conical bore.
Conical, so had a flaring bell. Double-reed, so sounded a lot like a loud oboe -- which indeed is a descendant. Arrived in Europe in the early 12th century from the Near East (similar instruments include the Greek/Byzantine aulos). In Middle English, there were three forms of the name, schallemele, s(c)halmys, and sc(h)almuse, from three Middle French forms, chalemel, chalemie, and chalemeaux, some of which are singular forms, some plural, and some pluralized from plurals taken to be singluar -- all of them from Latin calamus, reed, either directly or through the Vulgar Latin diminutive, calamellus, itself from Greek kálamos, reed. That reed thing.
---L.
Conical, so had a flaring bell. Double-reed, so sounded a lot like a loud oboe -- which indeed is a descendant. Arrived in Europe in the early 12th century from the Near East (similar instruments include the Greek/Byzantine aulos). In Middle English, there were three forms of the name, schallemele, s(c)halmys, and sc(h)almuse, from three Middle French forms, chalemel, chalemie, and chalemeaux, some of which are singular forms, some plural, and some pluralized from plurals taken to be singluar -- all of them from Latin calamus, reed, either directly or through the Vulgar Latin diminutive, calamellus, itself from Greek kálamos, reed. That reed thing.
---L.
