▪ I. † citole Obs. exc. Hist.
Forms: 4 sitol, sital, 4–5 sytole, citole, 5 cytole, cithole, cythole, (sotile, gytolle), 5–6 sythol(l, (sytolphe), 9 (Hist.) citole, sytol.
[a. OF. citole (-olle, sitole, ci-, cytholle, -oile, chistole), corresp. to Pr. and OSp. ciˈtola, MHG. zitôl(e; app. a deriv. of L. cithara (citara), with diminutive ending; but its history requires further investigation. (As a living word it was accented ˈcitole; it has been made ciˈtole by modern writers after OF. or It.)
Derivation f. L. cista, wooden box, is out of the question; but the occasional F. mis-spelling cistole may possibly indicate a ‘popular etymology’ associating it with that word.]
A stringed instrument of music much mentioned in 13–15th c.; originally the same as the cithara, though the mediæval name may have been given to a special form: see quots. 1879–80.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 91 Sytole stryng & gyternere. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1101 A citole [1 MS. cythole] in hire right hond hadde sche. 1388 Wyclif Bible 2 Sam. vi. 5 Harpis and sitols, and tympans [Vulg. citharis, et lyris, et tympanis; 16th c. vv. psalteries]. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3435 With synging, & solas, and sitals amonge. c 1410 Sir Cleges 102 Harpis, luttis, and getarnys, A sotile, & sawtre. 1460 Lybeaus Disc. 137 With sytole, sautrye yn same, Harpe, fydele and crouthe. 1480 Caxton Ovid's Met. xii. xvi, Harpes, sawteryes, rootes, gytolles [? sytolles], timbres, symphones. 1501 Douglas Pal. Hon. i. xlii, Sytholl, psalttrie, and voices sweit as bell. |
| mod. 1823 tr. Sismondi's Lit. Eur. (1846) I. v. 128 To play on the citole and mandore. 1871 Rossetti Poems, Blessed Damozel xxi, Angels meeting us shall sing To their citherns and citoles. 1879 Stainer Music of Bible 51 The old citole..seems only to have differed from the sawtry in that its strings were twanged with the finger-ends. 1880 Grove Dict. Mus., Citole. This word, used by poets in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries..is supposed to mean the small box-shaped psaltery, sometimes depicted in MSS. |
▪ II. † citole, v. Obs.
[a. OF. citole-r, f. citole.]
To play on the citole.
| c 1300 K. Alis. 1043 Sytolyng, and ek harpyng. |