Other forms: harmonicas
A harmonica is a small mouth instrument played by breathing in and out. Play the harmonica, a blues harmonica, pocket harmonica.
Blowing and drawing give different notes, which is what lets so small a thing play a full scale. Bending — drawing hard to lower a note — is what gives blues playing its sound. Benjamin Franklin coined the name for a quite different glass instrument.
1nounharmonicaA small mouth instrument played by breathing in and out.
“He played a sad tune on his harmonica by the campfire.”
harmonica is an instrument.
Also accepted in games: mouth organ
From Latin harmonicus, harmonious, from Greek harmonia. Benjamin Franklin coined the name for his glass armonica decades before the mouth instrument existed.
From armonica. coined by Q34969 to refer to his glass harmonica, an instrument that predated the small wind instrument by several decades. a doublet of harmonic; compare Latin harmonicus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA