psaltery

American  

[sawl-tuh-ree] / ˈsɔl tə ri /

noun

plural

psalteries

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.

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psaltery British  

/ ˈsɔːltərɪ /

noun

1. music an ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre, but having a trapezoidal sounding board over which the strings are stretched

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Etymology

Origin of psaltery

1300–50; Middle English sautrie < Middle French sauter(i)e < Late Latin psaltērium; Psalter

Example Sentences

When possible, they stuffed their 150-lb. psaltery, dulcimer, fiddles, banjos, guitars, buckskin drums and camping equipment into and on top of their Volkswagen and toured the mountain towns and country fairs.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the demand for psaltery players and country fiddlers was not exactly booming.

From Time Magazine Archive

Along with lonely exponents of the virginal, the psaltery and the oboe d'amore, there are 166 violinists, 88 organists, 73 harpsichordists, 64 flautists and 56 cellists listed, each count a statistical gain over 1960.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then, when the fad for folk singing mushroomed in the late 1950s, everyone was suddenly stuck on the psaltery.

From Time Magazine Archive

Juba mentions also the lyrophœnix and the Epigonius, which, though now it is transformed into the upright psaltery, still preserves the name of the man who was the first to use it.

From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us