chiroplast
Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An apparatus invented by J. B. Logier in London, about 1810, for training the hands of beginners in pianoforte-playing. It consisted of complex arrangements to sustain and guide the wrist and the fingers. A simplification of the machine, invented by Kalkbrenner in 1818, is still in occasional use.
‘Chiroplast’ comes from the Greek ‘kheiro,’ hand, plus ‘plastos,’ formed, molded.
Examples
“I had, however, no teacher at this time but my aunt Dall, and I suppose the chiroplast may have saved her some trouble, by insuring that my practising, which she could not always superintend, should not be merely a process of acquiring innumerable bad habits for the exercise of the patience of future teachers.”
“As for the horse, his legs stuck through the bridge, as though he had been put in a chiroplast, and he went playing away on the water with considerable execution, as if he were accompanying himself in the song which he was squealing at the top of his voice.”
