pandora2, pandore
(pænˈdɔərə, pænˈdɔə(r))
Also 7–8 pandure, (8 pandola), 9 pandura, pandur.
[a. It. pandora (also pandura), F. pandore, ad. L. pandūra, a. Gr. πανδοῦρα, a musical instrument the invention of which was attributed to Pan. (But the word was prob. of foreign origin.)]
A stringed musical instrument of the cither type, the same as the bandore.
The original Greek and Roman pandura is described as a kind of lute with three strings; such an instrument is still used in some eastern lands under the name pandur. But the original type has, at different times, and in different countries, undergone many changes in form, in the number and material of the strings, the use or non-use of a plectrum, etc. Equally numerous are the modifications of the name: cf. bandore, banjo, mandoline. The changes of thing and name have not always gone together: the Neapolitan pandura, for instance, retaining the ancient name, is ‘a musical instrument larger than the mandoline, strung with eight metal wires, and played with a quill’.
| α 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 166 Take an instrument, as a Lute, Orpharion, Pandora, or such like. 1762 Smollett Sir L. Greaves iii. (1793) I. 51 Their raw red fingers..being adorned with diamonds, were taught to thrum the pandola, and even to touch the keys of the harpsichord. 1825 Fosbrooke Encycl. Antiq. I. 628 The Orpharion was like a guitar, but..was strung with wire... The Bandore, nearly similar, had a straight bridge; the Orpharion slanting. The Pandura was of the lute kind, the Mandura a lesser lute. 1838 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) XVI. 788/2 Pandora, a small kind of lute, with fewer strings than the ordinary lute,..believed to have originated in the Ukraine. 1880 A. J. Hipkins in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 644 Pandora or Pandore. A Cither of larger dimensions than the Orpharion. |
| β 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. iv. 63 Some that delight to touch the sterner wyerie chord, The cythron, the pandore, and the theorbo strike. 1706 Phillips, Pandore or Pandure, a kind of Musical Instrument. 1880 Grove's Dict. Mus. II. 612 A larger orpharion was called Penorcon, and a still larger one Pandore. 1889 Abercrombie East. Caucasus 171 Akim's eyes at once fell upon a pandur, or three-stringed lute. |