different between cither vs gittern

English

Etymology

From Latin cithara, from Ancient Greek ?????? (kithára). Doublet of cithara, guitar, and zither.

Noun

cither (plural cithers)

1. Alternative form of cittern

Anagrams

• Triche, crieth, itcher, rhetic, thrice

English

Etymology

From Old French guiterne, ultimately from Latin cithara. Doublet of cittern.

Noun

gittern (plural gitterns)

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.

   Synonym: quintern

Alternative forms

• ghittern

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of chordophones

Verb

gittern (third-person singular simple present gitterns, present participle gitterning, simple past and past participle gitterned)

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.

Related terms

• cither, cittern, zittern

Anagrams

• gritten, retting