clavicitherium

English

Noun

clavicitherium (plural clavicitheriums or clavicitheria)

1. Alternative spelling of clavicytherium.
   • 1776, John Hawkins, “Preliminary Discourse”, in A General History of the Science and Practice of Music, [...] In Five Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Payne and Son, at the Mews-Gate, →OCLC, page xiv:

     [T]he harpſichord is an improvement of the Clavicitherium, an inſtrument known in England in Gower's time by the name of the Citole, from Cistella, a little cheſt.

   • 1872, Horace Greeley et al., “Piano-fortes”, in The Great Industries of the United States: Being an Historical Summaryof the Origin, Growth, and Perfection of the Chief Industrial Arts of This Country, Hartford, Conn.: J. B. Burr & Hyde; Chicago, Ill.; Cincinnati, Oh.: J. B. Burr, Hyde & Co., →OCLC, page 275:

     The writer referred to [Edward Francis Rimbault] traces the instrument from the ancient lyre, through various mechanical phases, the harp, psaltery, dulcimer, etc. to the clavicitherium—a name compounded from the Latin clavis, a key, and cithera, the name of an ancient instrument of music, which consisted of strings drawn over a sounding wooden surface or bottom, and not unlike the modern guitar. The clavicitherium was an oblong box, containing a number of strings arranged in a triangular form, and which were struck by a plectrum—a little mallet, commonly made of ivory, with which the ancients beat the strings of the lyre.