psaltria

Forms

psaltria f (genitive psaltriae); first declension^[1] Manuscripts also spell it spalt- and psalter-.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ψάλτρια (psáltria),^[3][4][5] and the OLD treats it as the feminine of the Latin psaltēs.^[3] The Greek word comes from ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck a string”), whose further origin is unclear.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Terence, several times in the Adelphoe,^[6][5] for a woman who plays a stringed instrument such as the cithara.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Cicero uses it in the speech for Sestius and in a fragment quoted by Nonius,^[6] and Juvenal and Macrobius have it later.^[6] In British Medieval Latin it is a woman who plays the psaltery or sings to it, and glossaries confused it with saltō (“to dance”), so that it could also mean a dancing girl.^[8]

Timeline

• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in the Adelphoe.^[6][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in the speech for Sestius.^[6][9][5]
• c. 67–c. 127 AD – Juvenal uses it.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman who plays a stringed instrument, a female cithara player.^[3][6][7][9]
2. (Medieval Latin) A woman who plays or sings to a psaltery; also, by confusion with saltō, a dancing girl.^[8]

Related words

• psaltēs
• psallō
• psaltērium

Usage notes

An ancient commentator on Terence glosses it with the Latin fidicina, saying that the Greeks named the player from the sound, the Latins from the hand.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier