embouchure
Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The mouth of a river, etc.; the point of discharge of a flowing stream.
- n. A mouthpiece.
Wiktionary
- n. The shape of the mouth and lips when playing a wind instrument.
This word comes from the Old French ‘bouche,’ mouth, which comes from the Latin ‘bucca,’ cheek.
Examples
“On the York River, near its embouchure, is the little port of Yorktown, famous for the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to the American forces in 1781.”
“I'm not playing the sax, because the embouchure [the mouth position used to blow into the instrument] is totally different and I don't want to mess with it.”
“I have the worst embouchure in the world,' he said; no trumpet teacher would let a student's cheeks develop what are now known in medical texts as 'Gillespie's pouches.”
David Gates, ‘Jazz’s Last Hero Trumpeter,’ Newsweek, January 17, 1993
