Gittern
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A small, quill-plucked, gut-strung musical instrument, most commonly with three to four strings in doubles courses; it is a flat-backed predecessor of the guitar, and it originated around the 13th century, coming to Europe via Moorish Spain.
"Now they can no more hear thy ghittern’s tune, / For venturing syllables that ill beseem / The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme."
- 2 a 16th century musical instrument resembling a guitar with a pear-shaped soundbox and wire strings wordnet
- 1 To play on the gittern.
"c. 1639-1640. John Milton, The Cambridge Manuscript; Excerpts from pages 35-41, as Reprinted in David Masson, editor & author, The Life of John Milton: Narrated in Connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time; Volume II, London and New York.: MacMillan and Co, 1871, page 109. … [E]ach evening every one with mistress, or Ganymede, glitterning along the streets, or solacing on the banks of Jordan, or down the stream."
Example
More examples"Now they can no more hear thy ghittern’s tune, / For venturing syllables that ill beseem / The quiet glooms of such a piteous theme."
Etymology
From Old French guiterne, ultimately from Latin cithara. Doublet of cittern.
Related phrases
More for "gittern"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.