Art & MusicGreek → English
Psaltery
/ˈsɔːltəri/noun
A flat stringed instrument played by plucking, common in medieval Europe.
The Greek roots
ψάλλω
psállō
to pluck, twang
ψαλτήριον
psaltḗrion
plucked stringed instrument
Literally: “instrument for plucking”
The story of the word
ψάλλω meant to twang a string with bare fingers, and it covered bowstrings as readily as harp strings. The same verb produced ψαλμός, so the Psalms are literally plucked songs and a psalter is a book of them. Fit a keyboard to the medieval psaltery, a shallow box of strings held across the knees, and you have the ancestor of the harpsichord.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- around 1300
Same family
psalmpsalterpsalmody
In a sentence
She tuned the psaltery by ear, one course at a time.
The manuscript shows an angel holding a psaltery flat against the chest.