Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- Also called hammered dulcimer, hammer dulcimer. a trapezoidal zither with metal strings that are struck with light hammers.
- Also called mountain dulcimer. a modern folk instrument related to the guitar and plucked with the fingers.
noun music
- a tuned percussion instrument consisting of a set of strings of graduated length stretched over a sounding board and struck with a pair of hammers
- an instrument used in US folk music, consisting of an elliptical body, a fretted fingerboard, and usually three strings plucked with a goose quill
late 15c., from Middle French doulce mer, variant of doulcemele, perhaps from doulz de mer, said to represent Latin dulce “sweet” + melos “song,” from Greek melos “melody.”