A wind instrument, especially from Scotland and Ireland, where air is squeezed from a bag through pipes to create loud, droning music.
Compound of 'bag' plus 'pipe.' The instrument itself is ancient, with origins in the Middle East and Mediterranean, but became most associated with Scotland from the medieval period onward. The word in English dates to at least the 1500s.
Bagpipes were actually banned in Scotland for 36 years after the 1746 Highland Uprising because the British thought they were weapons of rebellion—the government was so scared of the sound they made that they criminalized the instrument itself!
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