English

Noun

balalaiki

1. plural of balalaika
   • 1888, Henry Sutherland Edwards (translator), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (author), The House of the Dead; or, Prison Life in Siberia, London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. & New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. (1911), part I, chapter xii: “The Performance”, page 181:

     Suddenly the signal is given, and the orchestra begins to play. This orchestra deserves a special mention. It consisted of eight musicians: two violins, one of which was the property of a convict, while the other had been borrowed from outside; three balalaiki, made by the convicts themselves; two guitars, and a tambourine. The violins sighed and shrieked, and the guitars were worthless, but the balalaiki were remarkably good; and the agile fingering of the artists would have done honour to the cleverest executant.