plectrum

English

plectra alias picks

Alternative forms

• plectron

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plēctrum, from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron, “anything to strike with, an instrument for striking the lyre, a spear point”), from πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike, to smite, to sting”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛk.tɹəm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

plectrum (plural plectrums or plectra)

1. (music) A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.

   Synonyms: guitar pick, pick, (obsolete) plectre

   • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Winter Animals”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 292:

     For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it.

2. (anatomy, zoology) A projection of bone or other stiff tissue, such as the ridges in some insects' stridulatory organs.

Translations

music: small piece for plucking strings

• Arabic: ريشة f
• Azerbaijani: mizrab (az)
• Belarusian: пле́ктар m (pljéktar), медыя́тар m (mjedyjátar)
• Breton: skraberig
• Bulgarian: перце n (perce)
• Catalan: pua (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 撥子／拨子 (zh) (bōzǐ)

• Czech: trsátko (cs) n
• Danish: plekter
• Dutch: plectrum (nl) n
• Esperanto: plektro
• Estonian: plektron
• Faroese: plektari m
• Finnish: plektra (fi), pleku (fi) (colloquial); kynsi (fi) (harpsichord)
• French: plectre (fr) m, médiator (fr) m, pick (fr) m (Quebec), onglet (fr) m (Belgium)
• German: Plektron (de) n, Plektrum (de) n
• Greek: πέννα (el) f (pénna)

  Ancient: πλῆκτρον n (plêktron)

• Hebrew: מפרט (he)
• Hungarian: pengető (hu)
• Icelandic: nögl (is) f
• Italian: plettro (it) m
• Japanese: ピック (pikku)
• Korean: 피크 (pikeu)
• Latin: plectrum n
• Latvian: braucis m
• Lithuanian: brauktukas
• Low German:

  Dutch Low Saxon: plektrum

• Macedonian: перце n (perce)
• Malay: plektrum
• Navajo: beeʼałtązhí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: plekter (no) n

  Nynorsk: plekter n

• Occitan: plèctre m
• Old English: næġl m
• Persian: زخمه (fa) (zaxme), مضراب (fa) (mezrâb), سکافه (fa) (sokâfe)
• Polish: plektron m, (collective) kostka (pl) f
• Portuguese: plectro m, palheta (pt) f
• Russian: плектр (ru) m (plektr), медиа́тор (ru) m (mediátor)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: плектрум m, трзаљка f, трзалица f

  Roman: plektrum m, trzaljka f, trzalica (sh) f

• Spanish: plectro m, púa (es) f
• Swedish: plektrum (sv) n
• Tagalog: puwa (tl)
• Thai: ปิ๊ก (th) (bpík)
• Turkish: mızrap (tr), tezene (tr), pena (tr), çalgıç (tr)
• Ukrainian: плектр m (plektr), медіа́тор m (mediátor)
• Yiddish: ביינדל (beyndl)

anatomical part

• Greek: πλήκτρο (el) n (plíktro)
• Turkish: plektrum (tr)

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin plēctrum, from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛk.trʏm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: plec‧trum

Noun

plectrum n (plural plectrums or plectra, diminutive plectrumpje n)

1. plectrum, pick (object for plucking certain string instruments)

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron), from πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike, sting”), also analyzable as plēctō +‎ -trum.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈpleːk.trum/, [ˈpɫ̪eːkt̪rʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈplek.trum/, [ˈplɛkt̪rum]

Noun

plēctrum n (genitive plēctrī); second declension

1. a plectrum; tool for playing a stringed instrument
2. a lyre, lute

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	plēctrum	plēctra
Genitive	plēctrī	plēctrōrum
Dative	plēctrō	plēctrīs
Accusative	plēctrum	plēctra
Ablative	plēctrō	plēctrīs
Vocative	plēctrum	plēctra

Descendants

• → English: plectrum
• → French: plectre
• → German: Plektrum
• → Italian: plettro
• → Portuguese: plectro
• → Spanish: plectro

Further reading

• “plectrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “plectrum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• plectrum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• plectrum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “plectrum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “plectrum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin