Etymologically
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ψαλμός

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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)
  • 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