A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse aerophone, that is similar to the piccolo. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in fife and drum corps, military units, and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer. The word fife comes from the German Pfeife, meaning pipe, which comes from the Latin word pipare.
Crosby-style fife made by George and Frederick Cloos
A fife with six finger holes and a lead "cheater" or fipple mouthpiece attached with a brass screw, c. 1850s.
Édouard Manet, The Fifer, 1866. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
The Western concert flute is a family of transverse (side-blown) woodwind instruments made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a “flautist” in British English, and a “flutist” in American English.
A modern copy of an 18th-century French traverso, by flute-maker Boaz Berney
Various Baroque Flutes and Recorders in the Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments
An early keyed H.F. Meyer all-wood construction flute in case
Carlo Tommaso Giorgi and his Giorgi flute. The flute was end-blown.