psaltery

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sautrie, also psalterie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman psalterie, also sautere,^[5][6] with Old French sauterie,^[7][4] and directly borrowed from Latin psaltērium (“stringed instrument”),^[5][2][7] from Ancient Greek ψαλτήριον (psaltḗrion, “stringed instrument”),^[3][2][7][8] from ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck, play on a stringed instrument”).^[2][7][8] The American Heritage Dictionary refers that verb to the root Proto-Indo-European *pāl-,^[9] which Etymonline connects with feel,^[2] and Klein compares Latin palpō (“to touch softly, stroke”).^[8] The same Latin word is the source of psalter.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ancient or medieval stringed instrument: about 1330, in Reinbrun in the Auchinleck manuscript, a text perhaps of about 1300.^[5] Barnhart dates sautri probably about 1300, with a surname Sautre in 1248,^[7] and Etymonline dates sautrie about 1300, with the Latin form salteriun used in English from about 1200.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The instrument accompanied the singing of psalms,^[2] and in biblical translation the word follows the Vulgate's psaltērium, which usually renders the Hebrew word for the nebel.^[5] Chaucer used it as sautrie five times.^[10] It resembled a harp, but had a sounding board behind the strings and parallel to them,^[2] and dictionaries now compare it to a dulcimer that is plucked instead of struck.^[5][11] Johnson (1755), however, called it "a kind of harp beaten with sticks".^[12] The Anglo-Norman word could also mean the Book of Psalms,^[6] and the English word was occasionally used for a set of psalms, recited at an office about 1450, and for the Book of Psalms from 1628 to 1890.^[5] A verb "to play the psaltery" appears about 1400 in Piers Plowman.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – an ancient or medieval stringed instrument.^[5] Etymonline dates sautrie about 1300.^[2]
• c. 1400 – verb, to play the psaltery.^[5]
• c. 1450 – a set of psalms recited at an office (obsolete).^[5]
• 1628 – the Book of Psalms (obsolete by 1890).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ancient and medieval stringed instrument with strings stretched over a soundboard, plucked with the fingers or a plectrum; also a modern reproduction of it.^[3][5][11]
2. (obsolete, 1628–1890) The Book of Psalms; a psalter.^[5][11]

Verb

1. (rare) To play the psaltery.^[5][11]

Related words

• psalm
• psalter

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.