ψάλλω

Forms

ψᾰ́λλω (psállō) ^[1] Future ψαλῶ (Septuagint, New Testament), aorist ἔψηλα (Plato), in the Septuagint ἔψᾱλα.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[4][5] Beekes compares ψηλαφάω (psēlapháō, “to feel about, grope”) and thinks it probably Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek.^[4][1] Chantraine and Frisk note that it has the shape of the presents πάλλω (pállō), σκάλλω (skállō) and σφάλλω (sphállō), and that it may have joined that group secondarily; the old link with ψῆν (psên, “to rub”) is a guess, and the comparison with Latin palpor is doubtful.^[3][5] Chantraine calls it a Greek creation without known prehistory.^[3] Etymonline, on the other hand, connects it with the root of the English word feel.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anacreon has it for plucking a lyre or harp.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant to pluck or twitch something with the fingers: Aeschylus has it of plucking out one's hair in mourning and Euripides of twanging a bowstring.^[2][7] Mostly it was used of strings, to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, without the plectrum.^[2][7] Plato contrasts it with striking the strings with a plectrum.^[2][7][4] A later epigram uses it of a carpenter's red line, twitched and let go to leave a mark.^[2]

In the Septuagint it came to mean to sing to the harp, and then to sing praise; in the New Testament it is to sing hymns of praise, with or without an instrument, as in the Letter to the Ephesians, singing “in your heart” to the Lord.^[2][8][4] Its derivative ψαλμός (psalmós), at first the twanging of strings, became the psalm, and ψαλτήριον (psaltḗrion) a stringed instrument.^[5][6] English psalm and psaltery come from these through Latin.^[5][6] Latin borrowed the verb itself as Latin psallo.^[9]

Modern Greek keeps it as ψάλλω and as the remodelled Modern Greek ψέλνω (psélno), to chant hymns in church; the form in -νω grew from the aorist έψαλα, after pairs such as έδειρα : δέρνω.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Anacreon uses it for plucking a lyre.^[7][12]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus has it of plucking one's hair in mourning.^[2][7][12]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for playing the harp, and Euripides for twanging a bowstring.^[7][2][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato contrasts plucking the strings with the fingers with striking them with the plectrum.^[2][7][12]
• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for singing to the harp and singing praise.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for singing hymns of praise.^[8]
• Medieval Greek – The sense “to chant in church”, current in Modern Greek ψέλνω (psélno), is established.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pluck, pull, twitch: to pluck out hair; to twang a bowstring.^[2][7]
2. (figurative) To let fly a baseless shot of blame.^[7][2]
3. To play a stringed instrument with the fingers, without the plectrum; intransitively, to play the lyre or harp.^[2][7]
4. (Septuagint, New Testament) To sing to the harp; to sing praise, sing hymns.^[2][8]
5. (passive) Of an instrument, to be played; of a person, to be played to on the harp.^[2]

Word family

• ψαλμός (psalmós)
• ψαλτήριον (psaltḗrion)
• ψάλμα (psálma)

Related words

• ψηλαφάω (psēlapháō)
• Latin psallo
• English psalm
• English psaltery

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge