psallo

Forms

psallō (present infinitive psallere, perfect active psallī); third conjugation, no supine stem, impersonal in the passive^[1] The perfect psallī is vouched for by Priscian, who quotes psallerat from Caesius Bassus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck, play a stringed instrument”).^[4][1][5] In Greek the verb meant to pluck or twitch a string with the fingers rather than with a plectrum, and in the Septuagint and New Testament to sing to a harp or chant praises.^[6] Its Greek derivative ψαλμός (psalmós) is the source of Latin psalmus.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Sallust, who says of a woman that she could play the cithara and dance more elegantly than a respectable woman needed to (psallere saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae).^[3][8] Lewis and Short note that the reading psallere in Cicero's second speech against Catiline is not correct.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant to play a stringed instrument, above all the cithara, by plucking it with the fingers, and also to sing to its accompaniment.^[4][3][8] Horace, Suetonius and Gellius use it so.^[3] Arnobius has the impersonal passive psallitur.^[3][8]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant to sing the Psalms, with or without an instrument: Jerome, Augustine and the Vulgate use it so,^[3][8] and it came to mean chanting and singing praise in general.^[9]

Timeline

• 86–34 BC – Sallust uses it of playing the cithara.^[3][8][10]
• 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of a woman skilled in playing.^[3][10]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius pairs it with singing.^[3][10]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses the impersonal psallitur.^[3][8][10]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome uses it of singing the Psalms.^[3][10]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in First Corinthians.^[3][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To play on the cithara or another stringed instrument, plucking it with the fingers.^[4][3]
2. To sing to the cithara.^[3][8]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To sing the Psalms; to chant, to sing praise.^[3][8][9]

Related words

• psalmus
• psaltērium
• English psalm

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes canere, to make music in general, cantare, vocal music, and psallere, music on string instruments, like Greek ψάλλειν.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 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
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
11. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper