What is "fife"

Fife \Fife\ (f[imac]f), n. [F. fifre, OHG. pf[=i]fa, LL. pipa pipe, pipare to play on the pipe, fr. L. pipire, pipare, to peep, pip, chirp, as a chiken. See Pipe.] (Mus.) A small shrill pipe, resembling the piccolo flute, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music. Fife major (Mil.), a noncommissioned officer who superintends the fifers of a regiment. Fife rail. (Naut.)

1. A rail about the mast, at the deck, to hold belaying pins, etc.

2. A railing around the break of a poop deck.

Fife \Fife\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Fifed; p. pr. & vb. n. fifing.] To play on a fife.

1550s, from German Pfeife "fife, pipe," ultimately from Old High German pfifa; the English word is perhaps via Middle French fifre (15c.) from the same Old High German word. Imitative. German musicians provided music for most European courts in those days. As a verb from 1590s. Agent noun fifer is recorded earlier (1530s). Fife and drum is from 1670s.

n. A small shrill pipe, resembling the piccolo flute, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music vb. To play this instrument.

n. a small high-pitched flute similar to a piccolo; has a shrill tone and is used chiefly to accompany drums in a marching band

Fife (; ) is a council area and historic county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. By custom it is widely held to have been one of the major Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.

It is a lieutenancy area, and was a county of Scotland until 1975. It was very occasionally known by the anglicisation Fifeshire in old documents and maps compiled by English cartographers and authors. A person from Fife is known as a Fifer.

Fife was a local government region divided into three districts: Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and North-East Fife. Since 1996 the functions of the district councils have been exercised by the unitary Fife Council.

Fife is Scotland's third largest local authority area by population. It has a resident population of just under 367,000, almost a third of whom live in the three principal towns of Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes.

The historic town of St Andrews is located on the northeast coast of Fife. It is well known for the University of St Andrews, one of the most ancient universities in the world and is renowned as the home of golf.

Fife is a council area in Scotland.

Fife may also refer to:

Fife was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1708 until 1885, when it was divided into East Fife and West Fife.

It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) using the first-past-the-post voting system.

Before the Acts of Union 1707, the barons of the shire of Fife elected commissioners to represent them in the Parliament of Scotland and in the Convention of the Estates.

After 1708, Fife was represented by one Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons at Westminster.

A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute, that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer. The word fife comes from the German Pfeife, or pipe, which comes from the Latin word pipare.

The fife is a simple instrument usually consisting of a tube with 6 finger holes, and diatonically tuned. Some have 10 or 11 holes for added chromatics. The fife also has an embouchure hole, across which the player blows, and a cork or plug inside the tube just above the embouchure hole. Some nineteenth-century fifes had a key pressed by the little finger of the right hand in place of a seventh finger hole.

Fifes are made mostly of wood: grenadilla, rosewood, mopane, pink ivory, cocobolo, boxwood and other dense woods are superior; maple and persimmon are inferior but often used. Some Caribbean music makes use of bamboo fifes.

Military and marching fifes have metal reinforcing bands around the ends to protect them from damage. These bands are called ferrules. Fifes used in less strenuous conditions sometimes have a lathe-turned, knob-like decoration at the ends for similar reasons. Some fifes are entirely made of metal or plastic. Some modern fifes are of two-piece construction with a sliding tuning joint similar to some recorders.