Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small terra-cotta or plastic wind instrument with finger holes, a mouthpiece, and an elongated ovoid shape.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A musical instrument, hardly more than a toy, consisting of a fancifully shaped terra-cotta body with a whistle-like mouthpiece and a number of finger-holes. Several different sizes or varieties are made. The tone is soft, but sonorous.
Wiktionary
- n. A woodwind musical instrument that is closed at both sides to produce an enclosed space, and punctured with finger holes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A kind of small simple wind instrument.
WordNet 3.0
- n. egg-shaped terra cotta wind instrument with a mouthpiece and finger holes
Etymologies
- Italian, from dialectal ucarenna, diminutive of Italian oca, goose (from the fact that its mouthpiece is shaped like a goose's beak), from Vulgar Latin *auca, from *avica, from Latin avis, bird; see awi- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Simpia (UID#225) on October 29th, 2009 at 4: 18 am there was always the minimap on/off in ocarina … totally useful. in every way. i swear. just give it a chance.”
“On another subject, the ocarina is an easy-to-play, easy-to-learn, easy-to-teach circular flute, and the centre of the UK’s ocarina industry is in”
“Ängelholm is a pretty southern Swedish town, famed for its clay cuckoo manufacturing, a clay cuckoo being a kind of ocarina, which is a kind of flute.”
“IPhone Ocarina - When you hear the word "ocarina", what do you think of?”
“The name "ocarina" itself means as an ancient family of instrument (believed to date some 12,000 years), and one of the easiest instruments to learn.”
“The sound resolved itself into a peculiar song, one that sounded a lot like it was being played on one of those weird whistles they had for music class" "ocarina" his teacher called them.”
Burning Water
“By Antonia Cruz Rafael, this ocarina whistle is an ancient art form, oone of many ceramic arts perfected in the Mexico town of Ocumicho, Michoacan”
“Give Link an ocarina to play and his street cred increases exponentially.”
“As was the case with the iPhone, the incredibly creative developer community is going to come up with uses for the iPad that Apple never imagined. iPhone surprisingly became an ocarina; the iPad has already become a pretty decent piano.”
iPad Reactions: Experience vs. Ideology « Steve Wildstrom on Tech
“Also it doesn't matter that Nintendo tries, they've made the same game over and over again so many times i think people have got sick of it so even if the next zelda does come out people might ignore it because it will probably just be another copy of ocarina of time gameplay.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ocarina’.
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Playthings and Toys
have fun!
battledore, beanbag, bicycle, Big Wheel, crayons, boomerang, cap gun, doll, kite, jigsaw puzzle, hula hoop, jack-in-the-box and 66 more...
bilby "It was one evening with the rain running in rivers that we cooked up a tune. From somewhere I had obtained an ocarina, and with Edgington banging on a box of matches we gradually bring the tune to life. The lyrics were:
The Rhumba
Roca-manfina Rhumba
It's a snappy little number
Roca-mana-fina way.
Caramba!
All the natives say Caramba.
Rocamanafina Rhumba
Rocamanafina way."
- Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall'. Apr 25, 2009
frindley That iPhone app isn't just amusing. It's bloody brilliant. Check it out: it actually responds to breath and articulation. It's a work of genius.
I almost wish I owned an iPhone. Nov 10, 2008
sarra I like the broccoli ocarina (broccarina?) — cf. YouTube.
I do have a completed make-it-yourself one in lovely orange cardboard. And can play jigs on it. Nov 10, 2008
elgiad007 An ocarina is mentioned in a scene of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Nov 9, 2008
kewpid The funnest iPhone app ever!!! Nov 9, 2008
caxton ocarina n, a simple wind instrument typically having an oval body with finger holes and a projecting mouthpiece Jan 7, 2008