dital
(ˈdaɪtəl)
[f. It. dito finger, after pedal: cf. It. ditale glove-finger, finger-stall, thimble.]
The name given to a kind of stop to be pressed by the thumb, by which the pitch of a guitar- or lute-string can be raised by a semitone. dital harp, an instrument invented by Edward Light in 1798, and patented with improvements in 1816, intended to be an improvement of the guitar. It was fitted with ditals.
| 1816 Specif. E. Light's Patent No. 4041. 2 To the harp lute at present in use I apply certain pieces of mechanism which I call ditals or thumb keys. 1880 Grove Dict. Mus. s.v. Dital harp, Called ‘ditals’ or ‘thumb-keys’, in distinction from ‘pedals’ or ‘foot-keys’. |