The Book of Psalms in the Bible
A lyrical poem found in the King James Version of the Holy Bible is an example of a psalm.
psalm
- a sacred song or poem; hymn
- [usuallyP-] any of the sacred songs in praise of God constituting the Book of Psalms in the Bible
Origin of psalm
Middle English psalme, saume from Old English sealm from Ecclesiastical Late Latin psalmus from Classical Greek psalmos, a twanging with the fingers (in Septuagint and New Testament , song sung to the harp) from psallein, to twitch, pluckpsalm
noun
- A sacred song; a hymn.
- Psalms used with a sing. verb Bible
transitive verb
psalmed, psalm·ing, psalmsOrigin of psalm
Middle English from Old English from Latin psalmus from Greek psalmos from psallein to play the harp ; see pāl- in Indo-European roots.psalm
(plural psalms)
(third-person singular simple present psalms, present participle psalming, simple past and past participle psalmed)
- To extol in psalms; to make music; to sing; as, psalming his praises.
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 (psalmos, “the sound emenating from twitching or twanging perhaps with the hands or fingers, mostly of musical strings") (from ψάλλω (psallo, “to make a sound by striking, touching, plucking, rubbing, twanging, or vibrating")), but later in New Testament times the meaning of ψαλμός (psalmos) 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 their accompaniment. By the Byzantine Period, it lost all of its instrumental characteristics.
