| 释义 |
dulcimer|ˈdʌlsɪmə(r)|
Also 6 douci-, dousse-, dowcemer, (7 dulcimel).
[a. OF. doulcemer (Roquefort), doulcemele, doulz de mer (Godef.) = obs. Sp. dulcemele, It. dolcemelle (Florio); supposed to represent L. dulce melos sweet song, tune, or air. (The L. in this application is not known.)]
1. A musical instrument, in which strings of graduated lengths are stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board or box and struck with two hammers held in the hands.
Considered to be the earliest prototype of the pianoforte.
c1475Sqr. lowe Degre 1075 With fydle, recorde, and dowcemere. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xvi. xi, Cymphans, doussemers, wyth claricimbales glorious. 1662Pepys Diary 23 May, Here among the fiddlers I first saw a dulcimere played on with sticks knocking of the strings, and is very pretty. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 596 The solemn Pipe, And Dulcimer, all Organs of sweet stop. 1879Stainer Music of Bible 45 The dulcimer became a genuine string-instrument constructed without a neck.
b. It has sometimes been applied erroneously to wind-instruments. In Dan. iii. 5, etc. it is used to render sûmpōnyâh, Gr. συµϕωνία, which was a kind of bagpipe; while the word rendered ‘psaltery’ in the same passage signifies ‘dulcimer’. Oxf. Helps to Study of Bible.
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 42 The Elder..Hereof are made..a kind of Symphonie whiche the common sort call a Pipe: the learned and more civil kinde of men name it a Dulcimer. 1611Bible Dan. iii. 10 The sound of the cornet, flute, harpe, sackbut, psalterie, and dulcimer [Coverd. Symphonies, R.V. marg. or bagpipe].
attrib.1801M. Edgeworth Good French Governess (1832) 195 The little boy belonging to the dulcimer man.
†2. A kind of bonnet. Obs.
a1790Warton High-St. Trag. (R.), With bonnet trimm'd and flounced withal, Which they a dulcimer do call. |