psalmody

Borrowed from Latin psalmōdia, from Koine Greek ψαλμῳδίᾱ (psalmōidíā), from Ancient Greek ψαλμός (psalmós, “psalm”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑː.mə.di/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑ.mə.di/, /ˈsɑl.mə.di/, (obsolete) /ˈsæ.mə.di/, /ˈsæl.mə.di/^[1]

psalmody (countable and uncountable, plural psalmodies)

1. (music, uncountable) The singing or the writing of psalms.
   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XXVIII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume III, London: W Strahan; and T Cadell, , →OCLC:

     They deserved the enmity of the Pagans; and some of them might deserve the reproaches of avarice and intemperance; of avarice, which they gratified with holy plunder, and of intemperance, which they indulged at the expense of the people, who foolishly admired their tattered garments, loud psalmody, and artificial paleness.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     All these strange antics were accompanied by still stranger guttural noises from the devotee, who seemed to be praying in a sing-song or else singing some pagan psalmody or other, during which his face twitched about in the most unnatural manner.

2. (music, countable) A collection of psalms.

• psalmodial
• psalmodist
• psalmodize

psalmody (third-person singular simple present psalmodies, present participle psalmodying, simple past and past participle psalmodied)

1. To celebrate in psalms.