psalm

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See also: Psalm

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English salm or psalme, from Old English psealm, later reinforced from Old French psalme (modern French psaume), both from Latin psalmus, from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, the sound emanating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands or fingers, mostly of musical strings) (from ψάλλω (psállō, to make a sound by striking, touching, plucking, rubbing, twanging, or vibrating)), but later in New Testament times the meaning of ψαλμός (psalmós) evolved from its Classical meaning of "a tune played to the harp" to a more general tune that could be played with any instrument; even a song sung with or without musical accompaniment. By the Byzantine Period, it lost all of its instrumental nuances.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

psalm (plural psalms)

  1. (religion, music) A sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God.
  2. One of the hymns by David and others, collected into one book of the Old Testament, or a modern metrical version of such a hymn for public worship.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

psalm (third-person singular simple present psalms, present participle psalming, simple past and past participle psalmed)

  1. To extol in psalms; to make music; to sing
    to psalm his praises.
    • 2012, George D. Manjounes, Good Morning, Morning Glory:
      I psalmed like a Moslem high in his mosque. And like a Greek priest, I sang the divine liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Meredith, L. P. (1872), “Psalm”, in Every-Day Errors of Speech, Philadelphia: J.P. Lippincott & Co., page 37.

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nl

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

psalm m (plural psalmen, diminutive psalmpje n)

  1. (music) psalm

Descendants[edit]

  • Negerhollands: psalm, posallem

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

psalm

  1. Alternative form of salm

Polish[edit]

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology[edit]

Learned borrowing from Latin psalmus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

psalm m inan (related adjective psalmowy)

  1. (music, religion) psalm (a sacred song; a poetical composition for use in the praise or worship of God)
  2. (biblical) psalm (one of the hymns by David and others, collected into one book of the Old Testament, or a modern metrical version of such a hymn for public worship)

Declension[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

adjective
nouns

Further reading[edit]

  • psalm in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • psalm in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic ѱалъмъ (psalŭmŭ), from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós).

Noun[edit]

psalm m (plural psalmi)

  1. psalm

Declension[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Swedish salmber, psalmber, from Old Norse salmr, psalmr, from Latin psalmus, from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, the sound emenating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands or fingers, mostly of musical strings).

Noun[edit]

psalm c

  1. a hymn, a church song
  2. a psalm of David, one of the chapters of the book of Psalms

Usage notes[edit]

  • Denominations in Sweden outside of the Church of Sweden (e.g. baptists) have traditionally not used the word psalm, but rather visa, sång (song). Recent integrated hymnbooks are titled Psalmer och visor (1976) and Psalmer och Sånger (1987) to indicated that they cover both the Church of Sweden and other denominations.

Declension[edit]

Declension of psalm 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative psalm psalmen psalmer psalmerna
Genitive psalms psalmens psalmers psalmernas

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]