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Woman with cittern by Pieter van Slingeland, 1677

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Etymology edit

Blend of cither +‎ gittern.

Noun edit

cittern (plural citterns)

  1. A stringed instrument (chordophone), played with a plectrum (a pick), and most commonly possessing four wire strings and chromatic frets.
    • 1661 January 17, Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys: January 1661:
      This discourse took us much time, till it was time to go to bed; but we being merry, we bade my Lady goodnight, and intended to have gone to the Post-house to drink, and hear a pretty girl play of the cittern (and indeed we should have lain there, but by a mistake we did not), but it was late, and we could not hear her, and the guard came to examine what we were; so we returned to our Inn and to bed, the page and I in one bed, and the two captains in another, all in one chamber, where we had very good mirth with our most abominable lodging.
    • 1911, Cittern, article in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition,
      The cittern consisted of a pear-shaped body similar to that of the lute but with a flat back and sound-board joined by ribs. The neck was provided with a fretted fingerboard; the head was curved and surmounted by a grotesque head of a woman or of an animal.
    • 1911, “Guitar”, in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
      The advent of the Spanish guitar in England led to the wane in the popularity of the cittern, also known at that time in contradistinction as the English or wire-strung guitar, although the two instruments differed in many particulars.
    • 2000, Musical Instruments Museum, Visitor's Guide[1], page 93:
      Antwerp was world-famous for its harpsichords, but it was also a centre, in the 16th century, where citterns, lutes, viols and later violins were constructed with skill.

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