A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Hautboy
HAUTBOY. The English transference of the French Haut-bois, i. e. a wooden instrument with a high tone. The word is used by Shakspeare. In Handel's time it was phoneticised into Hoboy. The Italians spell it Oboe, which form (occasionally, as by Schumann, Hoboe) is now adopted in Germany and England. Under that head the instrument is described. [Oboe.]
[ G. ]