lyre

See also: lyře and lyrë

English

A lyre

Etymology

From Ancient Greek λύρᾱ (lúrā, “lyre, a stringed instrument with a sounding-board formed of the shell of a tortoise”). Doublet of lira, Lyra, and lyra.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.ə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.ɚ/, /laɪɹ/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
• Homophones: liar, lier, lire

Noun

lyre (plural lyres)

2. (music) An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.
   1. Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.
3. A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.
4. (obsolete) A composer of lyric poetry.

Synonyms

• (a general class of instruments): yoke lute

Derived terms

• bell lyre
• lyre-guitar
• lyreless
• lyrelike
• lyre snake
• lyre sponge
• lyretail
• lyre-tailed
• lyrichord
• lyriferous
• lyriform
• lyrism
• lyrist

Related terms

• Lyra
• lyrate
• lyrebird
• lyric
• lyrical

Translations

stringed musical instrument

• Albanian: jongar (sq)sharki (sq), sharkë (sq) (archaic)
• Arabic: كِنَّارَة f (kinnāra)
• Armenian: քնար (hy) (kʻnar)
• Basque: lira (eu)
• Bulgarian: лира f (lira)
• Catalan: lira (ca) f
• Chinese: 里拉 (zh) (lǐlā) (lǐlā)
• Coptic: ⲗⲩⲣⲁ (lura), ⲕⲓⲑⲁⲣⲁ (kithara)
• Czech: lyra (cs) f
• Danish: lyre c
• Dutch: lier (nl) f
• Esperanto: liro (eo)
• Estonian: lüüra
• Faroese: lýri m
• Finnish: lyyra (fi)
• French: lyre (fr) f
• German: Leier (de) f, Lyra (de) f
• Greek: λύρα (el) f (lýra)

  Ancient Greek: λύρα f (lúra), κιθάρα f (kithára), (Epic) φόρμιγξ f (phórminx)

• Hebrew: כִּנּוֹר (he) m (kinnór)
• Hiligaynon: árpa
• Hungarian: líra (hu)
• Icelandic: lýra f
• Ido: liro (io)
• Irish: lir f
• Italian: lira (it) f
• Japanese: ライアー (raiā)
• Latin: lyra f
• Lithuanian: lyra
• Occitan: lira (oc) f
• Old English: hearpe
• Persian: چنگ (fa) (čang), چنگ رومی (fa) (čang-e rumi)

  Middle Persian: [script needed] (barbūt)

• Piedmontese: lira f
• Polish: lira (pl) f
• Portuguese: lira (pt) f
• Romanian: liră (ro) f
• Russian: ли́ра (ru) f (líra)
• Serbo-Croatian: lȋra (sh) f
• Slovak: lýra f
• Slovene: lira (sl) f
• Spanish: lira (es) f
• Swahili: lira (sw), kinubi kidogo
• Swedish: lyra (sv) c
• Turkish: lir (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: چنك (çenk)

• Ugaritic: 𐎋𐎐𐎗 (knr)
• Welsh: telyn gron f

lyre-shaped music holder

• Icelandic: lýra f

References

• 2012. Kisir and Tanbura. Dahab Khalil and Artur Simon. Pg. 96.
• 2007. Origins and Development of Musical Instruments. Jeremy Montagu. Pg. 128.

Verb

lyre (third-person singular simple present lyres, present participle lyring, simple past and past participle lyred)

1. (rare) to play the lyre
   • 1922, Thomas Hardy, “Penance”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 143:

     Alas, far times ago / A woman lyred here / In the evenfall; one who fain did so / From year to year; / And, in loneliness bending wistfully, / Would wake each note / In sick sad rote, / None to listen or see!

See also

• harp

Further reading

• “lyre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “lyre”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Ryle, rely

Danish

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek λύρᾱ (lúrā).

Noun

lyre c (singular definite lyren, plural indefinite lyrer)

1. (music) a lyre

Declension

Declension of lyre

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	lyre	lyren	lyrer	lyrerne
genitive	lyres	lyrens	lyrers	lyrernes

Etymology 2

From Old Norse ljóri, derived from the same root as lys. Cognates include Norwegian ljore.

Noun

lyre c (singular definite lyren, plural indefinite lyrer)

1. (architecture) opening in a roof through which smoke from a fireplace or stove can escape (common during the Iron Age)

Declension

Declension of lyre

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	lyre	lyren	lyrer	lyrerne
genitive	lyres	lyrens	lyrers	lyrernes

References

• “lyre” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

lyre f (plural lyres)

1. lyre
2. (rare) a cutting tool resembling a lyre

Descendants

• → Romanian: liră
• → Turkish: lir

Further reading

• “lyre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

lyre f or m (definite singular lyra or lyren, indefinite plural lyrer, definite plural lyrene)

1. (music) a lyre

Anagrams

• lyer, -yler, ryle, yler

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

lyre f (definite singular lyra, indefinite plural lyrer, definite plural lyrene)

1. (music) a lyre

Derived terms

• Kraviklyra
• kraviklyre

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *luʀi, from Proto-Germanic *luziz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈly.re/

Noun

lyre m

1. loss, damage, destruction

Declension

Strong i-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	lyre	lyras
accusative	lyre	lyras
genitive	lyres	lyra
dative	lyre	lyrum

Related terms

• lēosan
• los
• losian

Descendants

• Middle English: lure, lire

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “lyre”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.