Etymologically
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psallo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpsal.loː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpsal.lo][1]

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]

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