AEOLIAN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Aeolian

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noun

Aeolian n.

A member of one of the four divisions of the prehistoric Greeks.

Synonyms: Eolian

adjective

AEolian adj.

Of or pertaining to AEolia or AEolis, in Asia Minor, colonized by the Greeks, or to its inhabitants; aeolic; as, the AEolian dialect.

Pertaining to AEolus, the mythic god of the winds; aerial. "Viewless forms the aeolian organ play."

Relating to or caused by wind; as, aeolian erosion.

AEolian attachment, a contrivance often attached to a pianoforte, which prolongs the vibrations, increases the volume of sound, etc., by forcing a stream of air upon the strings.

AEolian harp, AEolian lyre, a musical instrument consisting of a box, on or in which are stretched strings, on which the wind acts to produce the notes; usually placed at an open window.

AEolian mode (Mus.), one of the ancient Greek and early ecclesiastical modes.

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Etymology of 'Aeolian'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Aeolian" Quotes from Famous Books

... her, I drew back into the room. I was glad I had done so when, from the dark corner where I stood, I saw her steal up the marble steps and stand timidly looking in at the door. Then, after a long pause, came a whisper as faint and sweet as the music of a distant AEolian harp: ...

— The Lady of the Shroud • Bram Stoker

... has been compared with Webster's "Call for the robin redbreast" in The White Devil, but solemn as Webster's dirge is, it tolls, it docs not sing to us. Shakespeare's "ditty," as Ferdinand calls it, is like a breath of the west wind over an aeolian harp. Where, in any language, has ease of metre triumphed more adorably than in Ariel's Fourth Song,—"Where the bee sucks"? Dowden saw in Ariel the imaginative genius of English poetry, recently delivered from Sycorax. If we glance at Dry den's recension of The Tempest we may be ...

— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse

... stain the spokes with mire; Thick folds of ebon night on loch and law; The moan of breezes wailing through the shaw Like the weird plaints of an AEolian lyre: And intermittently through the clouds, the fire Of lightning streaks the night with glitter and awe, And lapses swiftly in the dismal maw Of darkness, 'mid the din of thunder dire. But to relieve the sad night's sullenness, And clear the heavens for the ...

— Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland • Daniel Turner Holmes

... and the nymph Orseis, represented in Homer as the happy ruler of the Aeolian Islands, to whom Zeus had given dominion ...

— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... companionship isn't a matter of over-crowded subways. And the strap-hangers and the train-catchers and the first-nighters can have what they've got. I don't seem to envy them the way I used to. I don't need a Louvre when I've got the Northern Lights to look at. And I can get along without an AEolian Hall when I've got a little music in my own heart—for it's only what you've got there, after all, that really counts in ...

— The Prairie Child • Arthur Stringer

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