Psalter

The story of the word

ψάλλω means to pluck a string, and a ψαλτήριον was the harp you plucked, so a book of songs is named after the instrument that accompanied them. The Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible chose ψαλμός for songs sung to strings, and the name stuck to the collection. In medieval Europe the psalter was also the first reading book: children learned their letters from psalms they already knew by heart.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old English

First recorded

Old English