psalm

English

Etymology

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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɑːm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɑm/, /sɑlm/, /sɔm/, /sɔlm/, (obsolete) /sæm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːm, -ɑːlm, -ɔːlm

Noun

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

• psalmist
• psalmodic
• psalmody
• Psalms (name of the book of the Bible in which the psalms are collected)
• psalm-smiter

Related terms

• psalter

Translations

Verb

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

References

Anagrams

• Lamps, Palms, lamps, palms, plasm

Dutch

Dutch Wikipedia has an article on:

psalm

Wikipedia ^nl

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

psalm m (plural psalmen, diminutive psalmpje n)

1. (music) psalm

Descendants

• Negerhollands: psalm, posallem

Middle English

Noun

psalm

1. Alternative form of salm

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:

psalm

Wikipedia ^pl

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin psalmus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /psalm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alm
• Syllabification: psalm

Noun

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

Derived terms

Further reading

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

Romanian

Etymology

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

Noun

psalm m (plural psalmi)

1. psalm

Declension

Swedish

Etymology

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

psalm c

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

Usage notes

• 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

References

• psalm in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• psalm in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• psalm in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• Palms, palms