dulcimer

[ duhl-suh-mer ]

/ ˈdʌl sə mər /

noun

Also called hammered dulcimer, hammer dulcimer. a trapezoidal zither with metal strings that are struck with light hammers.

Also called mountain dulcimer. a modern folk instrument related to the guitar and plucked with the fingers.

Nearby words

dulcet, dulcetly, dulciana, dulcie, dulcify, dulcimer, dulcinea, dulcitol, dulcy, dulia, dull

Origin of dulcimer

1560–70; alteration of Middle English dowcemere < Middle French doulcemer, dissimilated variant of doulcemele < Old Italian dolcimelo, dolzemele < Latin dulce melos sweet song. See dulcet, melic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for dulcimer

You'll hear a marimba and dulcimer every so often in this crescendoing collection of stellar four-part harmonies.
10 Great Bands You’ve Never Heard|Winston Ross|May 26, 2013|DAILY BEAST
When these were struck with a wooden stick the sound was not at all unlike the dulcimer, only, of course, very much louder.
Two Years in the Forbidden City|The Princess Der Ling
He had not a kopeck in the world, except what the people gave him when he played his dulcimer for their dancing.
Old Peter's Russian Tales|Arthur Ransome
The origin of the dulcimer is remote, and must be sought in the East.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 8|Various

There was a dulcimer in the room aunt Corinne occupied with her mother.
Old Caravan Days|Mary Hartwell Catherwood
This was the psaltery and the dulcimer of the Assyrians and the Hebrews.
Inventions in the Century|William Henry Doolittle

British Dictionary definitions for dulcimer

dulcimer

/ (ˈdʌlsɪmə) /

noun music

a tuned percussion instrument consisting of a set of strings of graduated length stretched over a sounding board and struck with a pair of hammers

an instrument used in US folk music, consisting of an elliptical body, a fretted fingerboard, and usually three strings plucked with a goose quill

Word Origin for dulcimer

C15: from Old French doulcemer, from Old Italian dolcimelo, from dolce sweet, from Latin dulcis + -melo, perhaps from Greek melos song

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for dulcimer

dulcimer

late 15c., from Middle French doulce mer, variant of doulcemele, perhaps from doulz de mer, said to represent Latin dulce "sweet" + melos "song," from Greek melos "melody."