Etymologically
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cithara

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkɪ.tʰa.ra][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃiː.ta.ra][1]

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
  • 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