cithara

Forms

cithara f (genitive citharae); first declension^[1] Fronto has citara, and Ampelius cittera.^[2] The Appendix Probi censures the form citera: “cithara non citera”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára, “lyre”);^[4][1][5] the further origin of the Greek word is unclear.^[6] Wiktionary relates the form ⟨citera⟩ to a common wavering between unstressed /er/ and /ar/.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short cite it first from Lucretius;^[7] Köbler's first source is the poet Cornificius Longus.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It is the lyre, the Greek stringed instrument, very common in the poets, especially Horace.^[4][7]

Church Latin glosses it “harp, cither”.^[8] In New Latin it is short for cithara hispānica, the guitar.^[1] English cithara (1789) names the ancient instrument.^[9]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius.^[7][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace often of the lyre.^[7][6]
• 1789 – English cithara.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lyre, cithara, a stringed instrument.^[4][7][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A harp.^[8]
3. (New Latin) A guitar.^[1]

Word family

• citharicen
• citharista
• citharizō

Related words

• English cithara

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Appendix Probi, a late antique list of correct and censured Latin word forms ("calida non calda"); ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini IV, Leipzig 1864, 197–199.
4. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com