[sawl-tuh-ree] 
| 1. | an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum. |
| 2. | (initial capital letter ) the Psalter. |
| psal·ter·y (sôl'tə-rē) n. pl. psal·ter·ies also psal·tries An ancient stringed instrument played by plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. [Middle English psalterie, from Old French, from Latin psaltērium, from Greek psaltērion, from psallein, to play the harp; see pāl- in Indo-European roots.] |
Psaltery
a musical instrument, supposed to have been a kind of lyre, or a harp with twelve strings. The Hebrew word nebhel, so rendered, is translated "viol" in Isa. 5:12 (R.V., "lute"); 14:11. In Dan. 3:5, 7, 10, 15, the word thus rendered is Chaldaic, pesanterin, which is supposed to be a word of Greek origin denoting an instrument of the harp kind.
psaltery
(from Greek psalterion: "harp"), musical instrument having plucked strings of gut, horsehair, or metal stretched across a flat soundboard, often trapezoidal but also rectangular, triangular, or wing-shaped. The strings are open, none being stopped to produce different notes. The instrument, probably of Near Eastern origin in late classical times, reached Europe in the 12th century as a variety of the trapezoidal Arabic psaltery, or qanun. It was popular in Europe until about the 15th century and developed there into several shapes, including the characteristic "boar's head"-i.e., with two incurving sides. It was plucked with the fingers or two quill plectra. Even after its decline, it continued to be played on occasion in fashionable society. It also gave rise to the harpsichord, which is a large psaltery with a keyboard mechanism for plucking the strings. Psalteries still played in European folk music include the Finnish kantele and its Baltic relatives, among them the Estonian kannel, which is bowed rather than plucked, and the Russian gusli.
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