violin [L16th] In the Middle Ages there was a musical instrument, stringed and played with a bow, called a viol [LME], which was borrowed from French viole. Under the influence of Italian this became viola [E18th]. Before this, however, the Italians had already built smaller, higher-pitched instruments which they called a violino ‘little viola’, which English borrowed as violin. The other viola [LME], the flower, is simply the Latin word for a violet. It was initially borrowed as a name for the violet, becoming the term for a genus of herbaceous plants by the mid 18th century and a name for the delicate version of a pansy in the late 19th century. The violet [ME] is simply a diminutive of this viola, borrowed from French.