What Is a Recorder?

The recorder is a simple whistle-like woodwind instrument. The player holds it outward from the lips, rather than to side as with a flute. Musicians play the instrument by blowing into it and covering up holes on its body to produce different notes.

Birdsong

It is possible that "recorder" is a reference to the instrument resembling the singing like a bird, since the verb "to record" in Elizabethan literature was used in connection to birdsong, say Richard Griscom and David Lasocki in "The Recorder: A Research and Information Guide."

A Memento

The first known reference to the recorder in writing is in a 1388 household account for Henry IV, which mentions a "ricordo." This spelling may come from an Italian word meaning a remembrance or memento, according to RecorderHomePage.net.

To Memorize

Another theory is that the word recorder simply comes from the English verb "to record," meaning to memorize, practice or recite. It might be making reference to the fact that a minstrel who played such an instrument was a person who remembered or related songs.

Other Names

Other names used to refer to the instrument appear in a variety of sources from the 15th and 16th centuries: "recorderis," "recordour," "recordres" and "recordys."

Source:

"The Recorder, A Research and Information Guide;" Richard Griscom and David Lasocki; 2003

RecorderHomePage.net: A Memento - The Medieval Recorder - Etymology and Literary References