The Latin root organum can be traced back to Greek ὀργανον, which originally referred to a tool or instrument to work with (cf. ἐργον, Greek for ‘work, task’), and more specifically to a musical instrument that can be tuned. Whereas the modern musical sense of ‘organ’, i.e. an instrument using pipes sounded by keys, is already well-attested in medieval Latin organum and Middle English organ(e, but no unambiguous examples have been found in Anglo-Norman. Here all occurrences (both as a singular and a plural noun) seem to refer to a stringed instrument or lyre. The single (and late) attestation of the word in Rot Parl¹ cannot be defined more specifically, as the word appears, without further context, in an itemized list of goods in possession of William Somercote, along with references to a tabard, a gold flask, a mother-of-pearl tablet a gilded writing desk and a chrismatory. PROME translates the word as an ‘organ mounted in silver’.

Other senses associated with Latin organum (and also well-attested in medieval and modern English), such as ‘bodily organ’ or ‘instrument of speech’ or ‘device’, currently have no attestations in Anglo-Norman.

The condensed spelling orgne, previously listed as a variant here in AND¹ has now been moved under orgues (see commentary on that article).