Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Written music as distinguished from that which is extemporaneous.
- noun A descant or counterpoint as distinguished from a cantus firmus; contrapuntal music in general.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Music written, or noted, with dots or points; -- so called from the points or dots with which it is noted down.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Music written, or noted, with dots or points.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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At Gloucester the Lady chapel is furnished with two galleries (with chantry chapels below) for the singing of "pricksong"; each is provided with a broad stone desk for the necessary books, thus differing from the choir where such accommodation was unusual and unnecessary, but few books being used there except on the lectern.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913
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_ I can sing pricksong, lady, at first sight; and why not be a courtier as suddenly?
Bussy D'Ambois and The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois George Chapman
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The old ladies of the court avoid idleness by needlework, spinning of silk, or continual reading of the Holy Scriptures or of histories, and writing diverse volumes of their own, or translating foreign works into English or Latin; and the young ladies, when they are not waiting on her majesty, "in the mean time apply their lutes, citherns, pricksong, and all kinds of music."
The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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The old ladies of the court avoid idleness by needlework, spinning of silk, or continual reading of the Holy Scriptures or of histories, and writing diverse volumes of their own, or translating foreign works into English or Latin; and the young ladies, when they are not waiting on her majesty, "in the mean time apply their lutes, citherns, pricksong, and all kinds of music."
For Whom Shakespeare Wrote Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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The old ladies of the court avoid idleness by needlework, spinning of silk, or continual reading of the Holy Scriptures or of histories, and writing diverse volumes of their own, or translating foreign works into English or Latin; and the young ladies, when they are not waiting on her majesty, "in the mean time apply their lutes, citherns, pricksong, and all kinds of music."
Complete Essays Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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---- One other pricksong book of vellum covered with a hart's skyn
Bibliomania; or Book-Madness A Bibliographical Romance Thomas Frognall Dibdin 1811
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"_caul work_," (probably netting) "divers in spinningsilk, some in continual reading either of the Scriptures or of histories either of their own or foreign countries; divers in writing volumes of their own, or translating the works of others into Latin or English;" while the younger ones in the meantime applied to their "lutes, citharnes, pricksong and all kinds of music."
Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth Lucy Aikin 1822
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