psalter
(ˈsɔːltə(r))
Forms: see below.
[In OE. (p)saltere (= OHG. psalteri, -tare, mostly saltari, -târe, -teri, MHG. salter, Ger. psalter; ON. (p)saltari, Icel. saltari, Sw. psaltere, Da. salter (psalter)), ad. L. psaltērium. In ME. sauter, a. AF. sauter = OF. sautier (ps-), saltier, saultier (ps-), in F. psautier (16th c.) = Pr. (p)salteri, sauteri, Sp., It. salterio, Pg. psalterio; all:—L. psaltērium, a. Gr. ψαλτήριον a stringed instrument played by twanging, f. ψάλλειν to twang; also in Christian Greek and Latin writers (e.g. Jerome a 420) a name for the ‘Psalms of David’. The initial ps-, rare in OE. and ME. as in OF., frequent from 14th c., has been the established spelling from 16th c., but the p, pronounced in Fr., Ger., Du., etc., remains mute in Eng. The l was preserved in OE., was inserted occasionally in ME. as in OF., and usually from 15th c.; it is now always pronounced.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
1. α1–3 saltere. β2–6 sauter, sawter, 3–5 sautere, 4 sautre, -tir, 4–5 sawtere, 5 sauteer, sawtyr, -tre, 6 sater. γ4–6 salter, -tere, 5 saulter, sawlter.
| α a 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. xix. [xxvii.] (1890) 242 Þæt æᵹhwelce dæᵹe alne saltere..asunge. c 1000, c 1175 Saltere [see B. 1]. c 1200 Vices & Virtues 113 Bi ðessere holi mihte is iwriten on ðe saltere. |
| β c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 155 On ane stude in þe sauter. a 1240 Lofsong in Cott. Hom. 215 Þus seið..dauið iþe sawter. a 1300 Cursor M. 11616 (Cott.) Þan com þe propheci al cler, To dede, þat said es in sauter [other MSS. clere, sautere]. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 47 So seiþ the sauter and sapience boþe. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3317 The sexte hade a sawtere semliche bowndene. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ix. xiv. (MS. Bodl. 263) 420/1 Vpon a vers write in the Sauteer. c 1440 Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 720/1 Hoc psalterium, a sawtyr. 1530 Palsgr. 265/1 Sauter a boke, psaltier. 1547–8 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 317 Item, for vj new sawters in englisshe for the quyer. |
| γ c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints x. (Mathou) 566 A prophet til hym dere, And makare of þe saltere. 1474 Caxton Chesse 67 Dauyd preyseth moche in the sawlter the trewe labourers. c 1540 Invent. in Trans. Lond. & Middx. Archæol. Soc. IV. 371 Itm on bothe sydes the quyer iij salters. |
2. α1
psaltere. β4
psauter,
psawtre, 4–5
psautere, 4–6
psawter. γ5–
psalter (5
psaltyr, 6
spalter).
| α c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 202 Cimbalan oððe psalteras. |
| β a 1340 Hampole Psalter Prol. 3 Þis boke is cald þe psautere. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 195 þat ȝe have psalmystres or saienge of psalmes of þe psawtre fourty nyȝtes. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxv. 261 David seythe in the Psautere. 1511 Fabyan Will in Chron. (1811) Pref. 5 To say oon tyme our Lady psawter. |
| γ c 1470 Psaltyr [see B. 6]. 1509 Fisher Fun. Serm. C'tess Richmond Wks. (1876) 295 Many other prayers & psalters of Dauyd. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 2546 And deuoutely say..Dauyd spalter holly knelynge with great reuerence. 1530 (title) The Psalter of David, in Englishe. |
B. Signification.
I. 1. The Book of Psalms, as one of the books of the Old Testament.
| a 900 [see A. 1]. c 1000 ælfric On O. & N. Test. (Grein) 7 Se saltere ys an boc, þe he [David] ᵹesette þurh god betwux oðrum bocum on þære bibliothecan. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 7 Dauid þe þe salm scop in þe saltere. a 1225 Ancr. R. 288 Dauid, iðe sauter, cleopeð hine dogge. a 1300, 1362, 1474 [see A. 1 β, γ]. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer Introd., The Psalter shalbe red through once euery Moneth. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiii. 202 The Psalter was compiled, and put into the form it now hath, after the return of the Jews. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. II. ix. 152 [Pay] by twenty repetitions of the psalter. 1864 Reader 11 June 740 We put ourselves in a right position towards the Psalter by regarding it as the national Hymn-book of the Jewish people. |
b. A translation or particular version (prose or metrical) of the Book of Psalms:
e.g. a Latin, English, Chinese Psalter; the Prayer-book Psalter, the Scotch Metrical Psalter, etc.
Roman Psalters,
Gallican Psalters, and
Hebraic Psalters: the three successive forms of the Latin version of the Psalms, prepared by
St. Jerome; the first a slight recension of the Old Latin text, after the LXX; the second a more thorough recension, based on Origen's Hexaplar text of the LXX; the third a new translation by Jerome from the Hebrew. The first was adopted in the Roman liturgy; the second was extensively used in Gaul, and north of the Alps, and was subsequently adopted in the Vulgate, in which Jerome's Hebraic Psalter (which properly belonged to the Vulgate) failed to supersede it.
Prayer-book Psalter, the English version of the Psalms used in the Book of Common Prayer, and not displaced by the later version in the Bible of 1611.
| c 1050 Charter of Leofric in Kemble Cod. Dipl. IV. 275 Nu ðaer synd..tropere and ii. salteras and se þriddan saltere swa man singð on Rome. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 183 Ierom..amended also þe sauter of þe seventy þat was þoo i-used wel nyh in alle chirches, and þat psauter was eft appeyred, and he translated it newe aȝen;..þat sauter [is] i-cleped þe Frensche sawter, psalterium Gallicanum; ȝit he made þe þridde translacioun of þe psawter from word to word. 1549 (title) The Psalter or Psalmes of Dauid after the Translacion of the great Bible, poynted as it shall be songe in Churches. 1723 Gibson Life Spelman in S.'s Wks. Pref. C j b, In the Year 1640 he [John Spelman] publish'd the Saxon Psalter from an ancient MS. of Sir Henry's. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 250 Dr. R...fetched out of his closet a Chinese psalter, sent him as a curiosity by the cardinal de Tournon. 1889 H. E. Wooldridge in Grove Dict. Mus. IV. 752 Sternhold's translations [1549], [are] the nucleus of the metrical Psalter which has come down to us. 1905 W. Aldis Wright in Westm. Gaz. 29 July 2/1 Coverdale's first translation of the Bible was published in 1535, and he was employed in producing the Great Bible of 1539, known as Crumwell's, and the edition of April 1540, which first had Cranmer's preface. From the versions of the Psalms which appeared in these three Bibles the Prayer⁓book Psalter has been formed. |
c. A copy of, or a volume containing, the Psalms,
esp. as arranged for liturgical or devotional use.
| c 1000 Canons of ælfric §21 in Thorpe Laws II. 350 Þa halᵹan bec, saltere & pistol-boc & godspell-boc & mæsse-boc. a 1225 Ancr. R. 44 Verslunge of hire sautere, redinge of Englichs, oðer of Freinchs, holi meditaciuns. ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 431 A sauter held she faste in honde. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 41 Deuyn officis..out taken þe sautir, of wheche þei may haue breuyaries, þat is smale sauteris or abreggid. 1431 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 27 Also iiij grayels & iij sawters. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 164 Hauing a Psalter in his hand. 1833 J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 74 In an old psalter, written and illuminated by Eadwine, a monk, about the time of king Stephen. |
† 2. A selection from, or portion of, the Psalms, said or sung at a particular service or for a particular purpose.
Obs. In the
quots. applied to the psalms recited in the Office of the Dead.
| c 1000 in Thorpe Dipl. Angl. Aevi Sax. (1865) 614 ælc ᵹemænes hades broður [singe] tweᵹen salteras sealma..vi. mæssan oððe .vi. salteras sealma. c 1300 Havelok 244 Sauteres deden he manie reden, þat god self shulde his soule leden Into heuene. 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 26 Euery brother and sister shal payen..a peny to a sauter for ye dedes soule. c 1420 Chron. Vilod. 3101 Tylle he hadde sayde hurre sawter alle. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 318 Thow says for thame few psaltris, psalmis, or creidis. |
3. transf. Our Lady's psalter: a name given to the rosary on account of its containing the same number (150) of Aves as there are psalms in the Psalter; also, a book containing this.
Jesus psalter: a form of devotion consisting of 15 petitions, each beginning with a tenfold repetition of the name Jesus (which is thus said 150 times).
| 1380 Lay Folks Catech. (Lamb. MS.) 220 So myȝt pardoun be gotun to sey yche day a lady sawter. 1425 Ord. Whittington's Alms-ho. in Entick London (1766) IV. 354 Say three or two sauters of our lady at the least: that is to say, threies seaven Ave Marias, with xv Pater Nosters, and three credes. 1500 Will of Odingsellis (Somerset Ho.), A paire of small corall bedys with the hoole psalter of our lady. 1605–6 Act 3 Jas. I, c. 5 §25 No person..shall bring from beyond the Seas, nor shall print, sell, or buy any Popish Prymers, Ladies Psalters, Manuells, Rosaries, Popishe Catechismes. 1632 High Commission Cases (Camden) 305 That we are as carefull in printeing the Bible as they are of their Jesus' psalter. 1888 Guardian 21 Nov. 1766/1 The version in the Anglican manual already mentioned..retains the title of Jesus Psalter, while by its direction that each principal petition should be said once, instead of ten times, it abolishes the reason for which the name of Psalter was applied. |
4. Applied to certain old Irish chronicles in verse (
Psalter of Cashel,
Psalter of Tara or Temor).
| 1685 Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. v. 270 This Psalter of Cashel is one of the most Authentick Histories among them, and so called because done in Verse. 1793 J. Hely tr. O'Flaherty's Ogygia II. 240 A book..which we call the Psalter of Temor, in which are compiled the archives of the Kingdom. 1830–3 W. Carleton Traits & Stories Irish Peas. (1860) I. 117 note, There were properly only two Psalters, those of Tara and Cashel. The Psalters were collections of genealogical history, partly in verse. 1893 Joyce Short Hist. Irel. 31 A book of annals called the Psalter of Cashel was compiled by Cormac Mac Cullenan. |
II. 5. A stringed musical instrument:
= psaltery 1.
Obs. or
arch.| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 202 Cimbalan oððe psalteras oððe strengas ætrinan saca hit ᵹetacnað. a 1100 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 278/11 Sambucus, saltere. a 1325 Prose Psalter xlviii[i]. 4, Y..shal open in þe sauter myn purpose. 14.. Eger & Grine 265 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 362 Shee laid a souter upon her knee Thereon shee plaid full lovesomlye. 1483 Cath. Angl. 320/1 A Sawtre (A. Sawter), nablum, organum, psalterium. 1552 Huloet, Psalter:..also an instrument of musicke lyke a harpe. 1632 Quarles Div. Fancies ii. lxxvii, T' one makes the Sermon, t' other tunes the Psalter. 1878 B. Taylor Deukalion i. i. 19 The strings of the psalter, The shapes in the marble, Our passing deplore. |
† b. Her. Applied to a kind of wind instrument.
Obs. rare.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. xvi. (Roxb.) 56/2 He beareth Azure, a psalter... This may also be termed, a Recorder, or a Shawm, or a Wyate... Note that all these kind of wind Instruments, or any other, which receiueth the sound from the wind of the mouth of a man are euer placed in Armes with their mouth vpwards. |
III. 6. Comb. psalter-book = senses 1 and 2.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 17 Dauið in þe salter boc. 13.. S. Eng. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779) in Herrig Archiv LXXXII. 308/72 In þe sauter-book it is I-write also. c 1470 Henry Wallace xi. 1393 A Psaltyr buk Wallace had on him euir. 1545 Joye Exp. Dan. v. 61 What els is the psalter boke then the glasse of the most holy trinite? 1551–2 in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896) 96 For a sawter booke, xvj d. 1559 Rec. St. Mary at Hill 411 Payd for iiij sater bookes..xij s. 1571 in Nicolson & Burn Hist. & Antiq. Westmorld. & Cumbld. (1777) II. 90 Also four psalter books in metre. |