dulcimer

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a stringed instrument with strings stretched over a usually trapezoidal soundboard and struck with small hammers

   The musician struck the dulcimer with two light wooden hammers.

2. 2
   noun

   a fretted folk instrument whose strings are plucked or strummed, especially the Appalachian dulcimer

   She played a mountain melody on the dulcimer while the audience sang.

From Old French doulcemer or doulcemele, probably ultimately from Latin dulce melos, 'sweet song,' in which melos was borrowed from Greek for 'song' or 'melody.'

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