▪ I. viola1
(ˈvaɪələ)
[a. L. viola violet.]
† 1. The violet. Also fig. Obs. rare.
| c 1430 Lydg. Minor Poems (1911) 300 Haile, fresshe Rose, planted in Iericho! Swettest viola, that neuer shal fade. c 1480 Henryson Fables, Lion & Mouse 16 The Rosis reid,..The Prymeros, and the Purpour Uiola. |
2. A large genus of herbaceous plants of the order
Violaceæ, including violets and pansies; a plant or species of this genus.
| 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. [as Latin generic name, and so in many later Dicts.] 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 345/2 The principle..has been separated by Boullay from some species of Viola. Ibid., The capsule is like Viola. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 241/2 The violas are credited with powerful emetic and diuretic properties. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 23 July 4/2 The Alpine viola, in wondrous shades of mauve and violet and purple, stands an inch above the grass. |
b. A hybrid garden-plant of this genus, distinguished from the pansy by a more delicate and uniform colouring of the flowers.
| 1871 Field II. 250/2 There is still a good early-flowering white Viola wanted. 1888 Encycl. Brit. XXIV. 241/2 ‘Bedding violas,’ which differ from pansies in some slight technical details, have been raised by crossing V. lutea with V. calcarata. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 22 Nov. 1/3 Patches of pale mauve and purple show where colonies of violas and pansies are in bloom. |
| attrib. 1871 Field II. 250/2 Another manifest want in the Viola tribe. 1896 Daily News 22 June 3/5 Viola Show.—The first show of the National Viola Society was held on Saturday afternoon. |
3. attrib. In chemical terms denoting substances derived from the violet or pansy.
| 1868 Watts Dict. Chem. V. 1001 Violin, or Viola-Emetin, an emetic substance contained, according to Boullay, in all parts of the common violet. 1887 Buck's Handbk. Med. Sci. V. 490/2 Little, if anything, of value has been found in pansy; a glucoside, violaquercitrin, of probably no active properties, and a little salicylic acid. |
▪ II. viola2 (
vɪˈəʊlə)
[a. It. and Sp. viola, = F. viole viol n.1] 1. a. A four-stringed musical instrument slightly larger than a violin; the alto or tenor violin.
| 1797 Southey Lett. Resid. Spain xv. 265 The King of Spain wished to hear his daughter play on the viola, and an express was..sent to Lisbon for her instrument! 1801 Busby Dict. Mus., Viola, a tenor violin... The part it takes in concert is between that of the bass and the second violin. 1845 E. Holmes Mozart 14 The father..took the bass part on the viola, Wenzl played the first violin, I the second. 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. xxviii, Colney brought his viola for a duet. |
| attrib. 1856 Mrs. C. Clarke tr. Berlioz' Instrumentation 25 Viola players were always taken from among the refuse of violinists. |
b. One who plays the viola.
| 1894 Daily News 25 Apr. 5 Herr Ludwig Strauss, for many years viola in the quartet at the Monday Popular Concerts. |
c. A variety of organ-stop.
| 1876 J. Hiles Catech. Organ ix. (1878) 65 Viola, an open stop of narrow measure, and a particularly soft and agreeable..tone. |
2. a. viola da (also di) gamba,
= viol da gamba 1. Also
viola da gambist, one who plays this, a viol da gambist.
| 1724 Short Explic. For. Wds. in Mus. Bks., Viola Da Gamba, is the same as Viola Basso, or Bass Viol. 1787 Ann. Reg., Chron. 210/1 The Viola di Gamba is not an instrument in general use; and will perhaps die with him, but his performance rendered it exquisitely charming. 1885 Daily News 17 Aug. 6/1 (Stanf.), The early 18th century room contains the spinet, the viola da gamba, and the viola d'amore. 1977 Early Music Apr. 274 For viola da gambists there will be individual tuition. |
b. = viol da gamba 2.
| 1876 J. Hiles Catech. Organ ix. (1878) 66 Viola di Gamba, or Gamba,..is of tin or metal, and the tone is soft, and somewhat cutting. 1889 E. J. Payne in Grove Dict. Mus. IV. 267 Under the incorrect title of Viola da Gamba it designates an organ stop of 8 ft. pitch, with open pipes, in the choir organ. |
3. viola d'amore (or
† viola d'amour): see
viol1 2 b.
| 1724 Short Explic. For. Wds. in Mus. Bks., Viola D'Amour, a kind of Treble Viol, strung with Wire, and so called because of its soft and sweet Tone. 1885 [see 2]. 1889 Grove's Dict. Mus. IV. 267. |
4. With other distinguishing terms:
viola bastarda = lyra viol s.v. lyra 5;
viola da braccio [
lit. ‘of the arm’], any member of the violin family, as opposed to a
viol da gamba;
spec. an alto violin, a viola;
viola pomposa, an 18th-cent. viola with an additional string.
| 1724 Viola bastarda [see viol n.1 2 a]. 1980 Early Music Apr. 250 (Advt.), The viola bastarda style of playing was a highly developed idiom that involved frequent changes of register. |
| 1864 Sandys & Forster Hist. Violin viii. 97 Vincentio Galilei, the father of the great astronomer, was an able writer on music, and in 1582 names the viola da braccio, which he says was called the lira not many years previously, the viola da gamba, and the violono, but not the violino. 1976 D. Munrow Instruments Middle Ages & Renaissance 90/1 The name viola da braccio, which first occurs in 1543, was first used as a generic term like the older viola, but gradually came to refer to the members of the new violin family. |
| 1864 Sandys & Forster Hist. Violin xii. 164 John Sebastian Bach introduced an instrument he called the viola pomposa, in consequence..of the heavy style of violon⁓cello performers in his time. 1954 Grove Dict. Mus. VIII. 810/1 Sanford Terry has shown that Bach's ‘viola pomposa’ was really the violoncello piccolo. 1976 Gramophone Apr. 1607/2 The viola pomposa a cross between cello and a big Tertis-style viola, with a splendidly rounded sound. |