harping 
Harpings. 
A, after-hody : F, fore-body ; //. H, harpings. 
to keep the cant-frames, etc., in position till 
the outside planking is worked, 
harping-iront (har'ping-i"ern), n. [A pervert- 
ed form of "harpoon-iron.} A harpoon. 
Harping-ironn, speares, cordes, axes, hatchets, kniues, 
and other implements for the flshiug. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, I. 413. 
A great beast come pat of the Eiuer (a Crocodile or some 
other monster), hailing on the hack great scales, vgly 
clawes, and a long taile, which thrust out a tongue like a 
harping-iron. Purchag, Pilgrimage, p. 839. 
The boat which on the first assault did go 
Struck with a harping-iron the younger foe. . 
Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands. 
harpist (har'pist), . [= F. harpiste = Pg. har- 
pista, arpista = Sp. It. arpista; as harp + -ist. 
The proper E. word is harper.} One who plays 
on the harp ; a harper. 
That jEagrian harpist, for whose lay 
Tigers with hunger pinde and left their pray. 
W. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, 1. 5. 
harp-lute (hiirp'lut), n. A variety of guitar in- 
vented early in the nineteenth century, in which, 
by pressing a dital or thumb-key, the pitch of the 
strings may be chromatically raised. See dital 
Tiarp, under dital. 
harpoon (har-pon'), n. [= G. harpune = Dan. 
Sw. harpun, < D. harpoen (pron. as E. harpoon), 
< F. harpon, orig. a cramp-iron, hence a grap- 
pling-iron, a harpoon, = Sp. arpon = Pg. ar- 
p&o, a harpoon ; connected with OF. harpe, a 
dog's claw or paw, harper, grapple, grasp, Sp. 
Pg. arpar, tear to pieces, rend, claw ; these per- 
haps being shortened forms from the root of L. 
liarpago(n-), a grappling-iron, hook, drag (> It. 
arpagone, a harpoon : see harpagon), < Or. dpvd- 
yn, a hook, a rake, < dpnd&tv, snatch, seize, the 
snorter base appearing in O/JTTJ?, a bird of prey: 
see harpy.} A missile weapon used in cap- 
turing whales and large fish, and either thrown 
by hand or fired from a gun. See harpoon-gun. 
In the older form of this weapon the head is a heavy, flat, 
triangular piece of iron with strong barbs, sharpened on 
the outer edges to enable it to penetrate deeply, and fas- 
tened to a handle or shank, 2J or 3 feet long, to which is 
attached a long cord or rope. In a later form the head 
has but one barb. The common non-explosive harpoon 
is not employed by whalemen to kill the whale, but merely 
to fasten it to the boat, in order that the latter may be 
hauled up alongside the animal, which is then killed by a 
lance. (See exploding harpoon, below.) The harpoons 
that are to be first used are carried at the head of the whale- 
boat, six being included in the outfit of a boat. The first 
two are known as the first and second irons ; the rest as 
the spare harpoons, one of which is the drag-iryn. The 
first harpoon is darted into the whale by hand, and the 
second follows if there is time ; if not, it is thrown over- 
board to prevent fouling with the outgoing line. See 
toggle-iron. 
The line is joined to the harpoon by the "foregoer," a 
piece of rope somewhat lighter and more pliable than 
whale-line. The foregoer being the only part of the line 
drawn out by the harpoon while in flight, its length, usu- 
ally from 10 to 12 fathoms, regulates the distance the har- 
poon may be flred. Encyc. Brit., XXIV. 526. 
Bomb-harpoon, an explosive harpoon that may be thrust 
by hand or discharged from a swivel-gun ; also, a bomb- 
lance, Conch harpoon, a barbed spear with fixed head 
and single point, used in the capture of large fish. [Ba- 
hamas, and Florida, U. S. J Electric harpoon, a bomb- 
lance in which the charge is fired by means of an electric 
fuse, the connection being made by means of a wire in the 
harpoon-line. See bamlt-lance. Exploding or explosive 
harpoon, a harpoon the head of which is filled with an 
explosive; also, improperly, a bomb-lance. Toggle-har- 
poon, the ordinary toggle-iron. 
harpoon (har-pon'), v. t. [< harpoon, n.} To 
strike, catch, or kill with a harpoon. 
The beluga is usually caught in nets, but Is sometimes 
harpooned. Pennant. 
harpoon-arrow (har-pon'ar"6), n. An arrow 
propelled by a spring consisting of a bent rod 
or bow, used in fishing by the Eskimos of 
Alaska. 
harpooneerf, . [Also harpoonier, harponier; < 
harpoon + -eer.} Same as harpoontr, 
172 
2727 
When they espy him (the whale] on the top of the water, 
. . . they row toward him in a shallop, in which the 
riarponier stands ready with both his hands to dart his 
Harping-iron. Purchag, Pilgrimage, p. 742. 
harpooner (har-po'ner), n. [< harpoon + -er 1 .} 
One who throws a harpoon. 
Each sail is set to catch the favouring gale, 
While on the yard-arm the ftarnooner sits. 
Grainger, The Sugar Cane, ii. 
harpoon-fork (hiir-pon'fork), . A hay-fork 
consisting of two barbed points like harpoons, 
forming a tool shaped like an inverted U. 
harpoon-gun (har-pOn'gun), w. A gun from 
which a harpoon or toggle-iron may be dis- 
charged. It may be either a gun fired from the shoul- 
der or a swivel-gun. The projectile may be an explo- 
sive harpoon or lance (see bomb-lance), or simply a toggle- 
iron, without the pole, having an eye in the after end of 
the shank into which is bent one end of the tow-line, the 
latter being either on the outside of the barrel of the gun 
or doubled up in the bore. 
harpoon-shuttle (har-po'n'shut'l), w. A long 
shuttle or needle used in weaving large brush 
mats which are employed in building dikes 
and levees, and in other hydraulic construc- 
tions. 
Harporhynchus (har-pp-ring'kus), . [NL., 
< Gr. apirri, a sickle, + pVYXPt, bill.] A notable 
genus of mocking-thrushes, of the subfamily 
Mi mince; the bow-billed mockers, or thrash- 
ers : so called from the arcuation of the bill. 
The common thrasher or brown thrush of the United 
States is //. rufus; there are numerous other species in 
the southwestern United States and Mexico, as the Cali- 
fornian thrasher (//. rtdimmt), the Yuma thrasher (//. 
leeontei), etc. This name was given by Cabanis in 1848 ; the 
genus had before been called Ifarpes and Toxostoma, 
names both preoccupied in other connections ; the name 
Methriopterus was given to the genus by Reichenbach In 
1850. 
harp-pedal (harp'ped // al), n. One of the foot- 
levers by which the strings of a harp are tem- 
porarily shortened and their pitch raised. See 
harp, 1. Also called harp-treadle. 
harp-seal (harp'sel), . The Greenland seal, 
Phoca groenlandica or Pagopliilus grcenlandicus, 
a large hair-seal of a whitish color with a cres- 
centic black band on each side meeting its 
Harpullieae 
which the tone was produced by the plucking or 
snapping of the strings by leather or quill points, 
which were set in jacks connected by levers with 
the keys. In form it usually resembled a modern grand 
pianoforte, though both square and upright varieties were 
also made. The length of the keyboard was from four to 
six and a half octaves. The number of separate strings to 
a key varied from one to four, sometimes including one 
tuned an octave alx>ve the others ; the latter variety was 
called a double harpsichord. The tone was weak and tink- 
ling, and gradation of force was impossible. Two key- 
Harp-seal Phoca grtxnlandica\. 
fellow over the back, forming a figure likened 
to a harp. It is common from Newfoundland north- 
ward, and is of gregarious and roving habits, congre- 
gating in vast numbers on ice-floes, where many thou- 
sands are annually killed. The Newfoundland sealers 
call them harpers or harps; the female is known as Jen- 
nie harp; the young in the second year, hopper-harp or 
bedlamer; in the third year, when assuming adult charac- 
ters, turner-harp. 
harpsecolt, See harpsicol. 
harp-shell (harp'shel), n. A shell of the genus 
Harpa. Species such as the East Indian //. ventricosa are 
very common in collec- 
tions. The shell is large 
and inflated, yet not ca- 
pacious enough to hold 
the whole animal. 
harp-shilling 
(harp'shiVing), n. 
See harper, 2. 
harpsichont,". See 
harpsichord. 
harpsichord 
(harp'si-k6rd), n. 
[Formerly also 
arpsichord; a cor- 
rupt form, other- 
wise perverted 
harpsichon, liarp- 
sicon, harpsicol, 
harpsecol, and even 
harpers-cord (the 
letter s being in- ******>. 
trusive) ; < OF. harpe-chorde (= It. arpicordo), 
< harpe, harp, + chorde, corde, chord, cord.] A 
stringed musical instrument in use in the six- 
teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, 
which in its form and in the arrangement of the 
keyboard and strings resembled a piano, but in 
Harpsichord in the Washington Mansion, Mount Vernon, Virginia. 
boards were sometimes combined, one for soft effects, 
the other for loud. Numerous devices, usually connected 
with the jacks, were introduced at different times to se- 
cure variety in force, and especially in quality. These 
mechanisms, which often aimed to simulate the tone- 
qualities of various orchestral instruments, were usually 
controlled by stop-knobs near the keyboard. The harp- 
sichord, though essentially different from the pianoforte, 
was its immediate predecessor. Before 1800 it was regu- 
larly used in all dramatic music, especially in accompany- 
ing recitatives, and in orchestral music. The conductor 
usually directed from his seat at a harpsichord placed 
amid the other instruments. 
If he the tinkling harpsichord regards 
As inoffensive, what offence in cards? 
Cowper, Progress of Error, 1. 148. 
Vis-a-Vis harpsichord, a harpsichord with keyboards 
for two performers. 
harpsichprd-graces (harp'si-k6rd-gra' / sez), n. 
pi. Various melodic embellishments, such as 
turns, trills, etc., introduced freely into music 
for the harpsichord, mainly to compensate for 
its unsustainable tone. See embellishment, 3, 
and grace, 6. 
harpsichordist (harp'si-k6r-dist), n. [< harp- 
sichord + -ist.} A performer upon the harpsi- 
chord. 
harpsicolt, harpsecolt (harp'si-kol), n. A 
harpsichord. 
harpstert (hiirp'ster), . [ME. not found ; < AS. 
hearpestre, a female harper, < hearpian, harp: 
see harp and -ster."] A female performer on 
the harp. 
harpstring (harp'string), n. [< ME. harpstryiig, 
harpestring, < AS. hearpestreng (= Icel. horpu- 
strengr), < hearpe, harp, + streng, a string.] 
One of the strings or cords of a harp. 
Of the schepe is cast away no thynge, ... for karpe- 
stryngis his ropys seruythe ichoone. 
Political Peemg, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 17. 
As harpstrings are broken asunder 
By music they throb to express. 
Longfellow, Sandalphon. 
harp-style (harp'stll), n. In music, a style or 
method of composition or of performance like 
that best suited to the harp ; especially, a style 
abounding in arpeggio effects. 
harp-treadle (harp'tred"!), n. Same as harp- 
penal. 
harpula (har'pu-la), n. A valuable tree, Har- 
pullia cupanioides: so called at Chittagong in 
Bengal. See Harpullia. 
Harpulia (har-pu'li-a), re. [< harpula.} Same 
as Harpullia. 
Harpullia (har-pul'i-a), n. [NL. (Roxburgh, 
1820), < harpula.} A genus of dicotyledonous 
polypetalous trees, belonging to the natural or- 
der Sapindaceai and type of the tribe Harpullieai 
of Eadlkof er, distinguished from related genera 
by its two-valved capsule with loculicidal dehis- 
cence. It embraces 6 species, natives of tropical Asia, 
Australia, and Madagascar. They are erect trees with alter- 
nate, odd-pinnate leaves, green flowers in racemes or pani- 
cles, and large red or orange-colored fruit. The Australian 
species have an economic importance, either as hardy ever- 
green shade-trees or for the quality of their wood. H. 
Hillii attains a height of 80 feet, and furnishes the tulip- 
wood of Queensland, which is valuable for fine cabinet- 
work. The Moreton bay tulip-wood, H. pendula, is equally 
valuable. H. cupanioidetr, the harpula of India, has long 
been in cultivation. 
Harpullieae (har-pu-li'e-e), n.pl. [NL., < Har- 
pullia + -ea;.} A tribe of plants, of the natural 
order Sapindaceai, suborder Sapindew, recently 
established by Radlkofer, embracing the gen- 
