Streich

(Ger.: ‘stroke’, ‘blow’).

In compound words, Streich- may mean ‘string-’ as in Streichquartett or Streichensemble. Streicher may mean ‘the [musical] strings’, but the usual term for the string of an instrument is Saite; see String.

Streich normally means bow only in such contexts as ‘stroked with a bow’ (Bogen is more commonly used than Streichbogen), e.g. ‘die Geigen mit dem Bogen streichen’ (‘to stroke the violin with the bow’). Types of bowing (or ‘bowstrokes’) are Stricharten. One may say also: ‘das Streichen über dem Griffbrett’ (‘bowing over the fingerboard’).

DAVID D. BOYDEN