Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An ancient stringed instrument played by plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The term is loosely applied to a variety of stringed instruments, some of them lyres or harps, rather than zithers.
- noun A musical instrument of the zither group, having several or many strings variously tuned, which are sounded by the finger with or without the aid of a plectrum.
- noun Same as
psalter .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A stringed instrument of music used by the Hebrews, the form of which is not known.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An ancient
musical instrument , similar to adulcimer or azither , and played by plucking the strings with the fingers or aplectrum .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre or zither but having a trapezoidal sounding board under the strings
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The sê, or psaltery, is made on the principle of the ch'in, and like that instrument has been made the subject of numerous allegorical comparisons.
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In the Middle Ages there was an instrument called the psaltery, apparently some sort of a four-sided harp strung with metal strings.
A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present 1874
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There is no indication of 'psaltery' having accompanied the recitation of canonical gāthās.
Psalms of the Sisters Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys 1909
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The '' 'psaltery' '' is an old stringed instrument, a member of the [[zither]] family, which is like the [[dulcimer]] in that it consists of a sound box over which tuneds trings are stretched, however these are plucked instead of struck.
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The '' 'psaltery' '' is an old stringed instrument, a member of the [[zither]] family, which is like the [[dulcimer]] in that it consists of a sound box over which tuness trings are stretched, however these are plucked instead of struck.
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The term "psaltery", from the [[Latin]] "'' psalterium ''", reveals its perceived similarity with the instrument of the [[psalms]] in [[medieval]] times.
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The monastery of Besdin was founded in 1539 and a Serb-Slav psaltery which is kept there has, on p. 270, the following words: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 1 Henry Baerlein 1917
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This initial was traditionally decorated with a depiction of David playing his psaltery. 79 That the psalms were associated with the biblical figure and his instrument was not lost on Dominican women.
Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008
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They received their name from the psaltery, the instrument for which the biblical King David was said to have composed the songs.
Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008
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Besides, he had a bow in his other hand, and the only instrument Kellen knew that used a bow was a psaltery.
Tran Siberian Michael J. Solender 2010
bilby commented on the word psaltery
"The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes,
Tabors and cymbals, and the shouting Romans,
Make the sun dance. Hark you!"
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.
August 29, 2009