Also zylo- (see X). [f. Gr. ξύλον (see XYLO-) + φωνή voice, sound.] A musical instrument consisting of a graduated series of flat wooden bars, played by striking with a small hammer or by rubbing with rosined gloves.
1866. Athenæum, 7 April, 470/3. A prodigy … who does wonderful things with little drumsticks on a machine of wooden keys, called the ‘xylophone,’ almost five octaves in compass.
1890. Hallett, 1,000 Miles in Shan States, 322. A native zylophone made of eighteen sonorous strips of hard wood fastened side by side by strings and suspended over a boat-shaped sounding board.
1892. R. L. Garner, Speech Monkeys, xiii. 135. Drawing a mallet rapidly across the keyboard of a xylophone.
Hence Xylophonic a., of, pertaining to, or resembling that of a xylophone.
1899. Mary Kingsley, W. African Stud., iii. 65. Many African instruments are … sweet … notably the xylophonic family.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 23 Aug., 10/2. Two swarthy bare-armed blacksmiths who extract zylophonic music from a couple of cart-wheels.
