psalm

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɑːm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɑm/, /sɑlm/, /sɔm/, /sɔlm/, (obsolete) /sæm/^[1]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːm, -ɑːlm, -ɔːlm

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.

• psalter

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.

• Lamps, Palms, lamps, palms, plasm

• Audio:

  (file)

psalm m (plural psalmen, diminutive psalmpje n)

1. (music) psalm

• Negerhollands: psalm, posallem
• → Indonesian: psalm

Unadapted borrowing from Dutch psalm, 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”)

psalm (plural psalm-psalm)

1. (Christianity) psalm

   Synonym: mazmur

• “psalm”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

psalm

1. alternative form of salm

psalm m

1. alternative form of psealm

Learned borrowing from Latin psalmus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpsalm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alm
• Syllabification: psalm

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)

• “psalm”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[2] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “psalm”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic псалъмъ (psalŭmŭ), from Byzantine Greek ψαλμός (psalmós).

psalm m (plural psalmi)

1. psalm

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”).

psalm c

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

• 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.

• “psalm”, in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker [Dictionaries of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

• Palms, palms