dulcimer

noun

Etymology: From Old French doulcemelle, probably from Latin dulce melos (“sweet song”), from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “melody, song”).

1. A stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).

   “A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid / And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora.”

   “Accompanying himself with his dulcimer, a plectrum instrument of his own handicraft, Niles harks back to the balladeers of old.”