Dictionary entry

Virginal (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Vir″gin‐al, n. [Cf. F. virginale; — probably so called from being used by young girls, or virgins.] (Mus.) An instrument somewhat resembling the spinet, but having a rectangular form, like the small piano. It had strings and keys, but only one wire to a note. The instrument was used in the sixteenth century, but is now wholly obsolete. It was sometimes called a pair of virginals.