cit·tern   (sĭt'ərn)    n.  A 16th-century guitar with a flat, pear-shaped body. [Perhaps blend of Latin cithara, cithara; see cithara, and obsolete English gittern (from Middle English, from Old French guiterne, from Latin cithara).]

Cittern

Cit"tern\, n. [L. cithara, Gr. ?. Cf. Cithara, Gittern.] (Mus.) An instrument shaped like a lute, but strung with wire and played with a quill or plectrum. [Written also cithern.] --Shak.

Note: Not to be confounded with zither.

cittern

plucked stringed musical instrument that was popular in the 16th-18th century. It had a shallow, pear-shaped body with an asymmetrical neck that was thicker under the treble strings. Derived from the citole, a similar 14th- and 15th-century instrument with gut strings, the cittern had four unison courses of wire strings. Diapasons, additional courses to reinforce the basses of chords, were also common. The strings were hitched to the instrument end and passed over a violin-type, or pressure, bridge. Tuning of the principal strings was B-G-D-E (Italian) or A-G-D-E (French) in the octave below middle C

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