Meaning

noun any of the numerous plants of the genus Viola

noun large genus of flowering herbs of temperate regions

noun a bowed stringed instrument slightly larger than a violin, tuned a fifth lower

originFrom Italian viola, from Old Occitan viola (modern Occitan viula), from Medieval Latin vitula (“stringed instrument”), possibly from Frankish *fiþulā (“violin, fiddle”). Doublet of viol. Also possibly a doublet of fiddle.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0