plectrum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin plēctrum (“instrument for striking the lyre”),^[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron, “anything to strike with”),^[2][6][7] which also meant a spear point and a cock's spur.^[2][8] The Greek noun is formed with the instrument suffix -τρον (-tron)^[2][9] from πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”),^[2][6][8] from Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“to strike”).^[8][3] In post-classical Latin the noun could also mean a tongue and, in a passage of 1230–50, a device for tightening the strings of a harp.^[2] Compare Anglo-Norman plectron, recorded in 1212, and French plectrum, recorded by 1632 and now usually plectre.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device for tightening the strings of a harp: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, the wreyste hatte plectrum.^[10][2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century, but for the tool that plucks strings.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense follows the medieval Latin one and did not last.^[2][7] The tool held in the hand to pluck strings, the classical meaning, appears in 1608 in Fotherby's Foure Sermons,^[2][9] and Barnhart's first record is Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum of 1626;^[5] Hoad, Collins and Dictionary.com likewise date the word to the 17th century.^[4][11][12] For a time English also had plectre, from French, recorded from 1603 to 1840.^[2] The word first referred to the lyre, and came to cover the guitar and the mandolin as well as the mechanical part that plucks a harpsichord's strings.^[7][11][9] Zoology and anatomy took it up for small stiff projections, as in Jefferson's notes on the Hessian fly (1792);^[2] the Shorter Oxford dates this use to the early 19th century, chiefly for the ridge in an insect's stridulating organ.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1398 – a device for tightening the strings of a harp (now obsolete).^[2][10]
• 1603 – the form plectre, from French, in use until 1840.^[2]
• 1608 – a thin flat piece held in the hand to pluck strings.^[2][9] Barnhart's first record is 1626, in Bacon.^[5]
• 1792 – in anatomy and zoology, a small stiff projection of bone or other tissue.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thin, flat piece of plastic, horn, metal or the like, held in the hand to pluck the strings of an instrument such as a guitar, mandolin or lyre: She dropped her plectrum halfway through the solo. The plural is plectrums or plectra.^[11][9][2]
2. The part of a harpsichord that plucks a string, such as a quill.^[11][7]
3. (anatomy and zoology) Any of various small, stiff projections of bone or other tissue, especially a ridge in the sound-producing organ of some insects.^[2][9][7]
4. (obsolete) A device for tightening the strings of a harp.^[2][10][7]

Related words

• plague
• plaint
• complain
• plangent
• plaintive

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House