Dictionary

psalterion en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /sɑlˈtɪriɑn/ (General-American)
• /-ən/ (General-American)
• /sɔːlˈtɪəriɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /sɒlˈtɪəriɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /sɔlˈtɪriɑn/ (General-American)
• /-ən/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French psalterion, from Old French salterion, from Ancient Greek ψαλτήριον (psaltḗrion), probably through Latin psalterium. Doublet of psalter, psalterium, and psaltery.

Meanings

1. (historical, rare) Synonym of psaltery.
   • The interpretation of the kithara as the lower part of a human being and a psalterion as the higher appears to derive from Origen. 2017 October 19, Everett Ferguson, “The Active and Contemplative Lives: The Patristic Interpretation of Some Musical Terms”, in The Early Church at Work and Worship, volumes 3: Worship, Eucharist, Music, and Gregory of Nyssa, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 141:
   • Notker, in the ninth century, says that the rotta (or chrotta) was derived from the psalterion — the ancient psalterion, as he even at that early time calls it. 1864, William Sandys, Simon Andrew Forster, chapter II, in The History of the Violin […] , London: William Reeves, →OCLC, page 21:
   • All ſubſtantiues endyng in on, hauyng i cõmyng next before on, be of tbe femyne gendre: Excepte Millyón a myllion⸝ eſcorpión a ſcorpyon a ſarpent⸝ ueſpilión a holy water ſpricle^([sic])⸝ eſtovrgión a ſturgion fiſhe⸝ psalterión a psaltrion […] 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “To Know the Gendre of All Substantyues Endyng in N”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio vi, recto; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:

Forms

Synonyms

psaltery