ψαλμός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /psal.mós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /psalˈmos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /psalˈmos/^[1]

Forms

ψᾰλμός (psalmós) m (genitive ψᾰλμοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck a string”) with the suffix -μός.^[1][2][3] ψάλλω itself has no etymology and is probably Pre-Greek, according to Beekes.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pindar, Aeschylus and Phrynichus the tragedian use it for the twanging of a string and the sound of the lyre or harp.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

Euripides uses it for the twang of a bowstring and for a love song to the lyre, and Telestes for the plucking of the strings.^[4][5] Inscriptions from Chios and Teos of the 2nd century BC record contests in harp-playing.^[4]

In the Septuagint it became a song of praise sung to the harp, a psalm, and the Book of Psalms; the New Testament uses it only in that sense, for the Psalms of David and for Christian songs, as in “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”.^[4][6][7] Modern Greek ψαλμός (psalmós) is a learned word for a psalm or church chant, with the phrase “a short psalm, alleluia” for something done quickly.^[8][3] It was borrowed as Latin psalmus.^[1]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for the sound of the lyre.^[4][5][9]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for the twang of a bowstring.^[4][5][9]
• 2nd century BC – inscriptions from Chios and Teos record contests in harp-playing.^[4]
• Septuagint – a song of praise, a psalm.^[6][4]
• 1st century AD – the New Testament speaks of the “book of Psalms”.^[4][7]
• Modern Greek – ψαλμός “psalm, chant”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A twitching or twanging, of a bowstring or of musical strings.^[4][5]
2. The sound of the cithara or harp; harp-playing.^[4][5]
3. A song sung to the harp.^[4][5]
4. (Septuagint, New Testament) A song of praise, a psalm.^[4][7]

Word family

• ψαλμοχαρής (psalmokharḗs)
• ψαλμῳδία (psalmōidíā)
• ψαλμῳδός (psalmōidós)
• ψαλτήριον (psaltḗrion)

Related words

• ψάλλω (psállō)
• English psalm
• English psaltery

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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
3. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge