the.com/hammered dulcimer
A piano's ancestor you hit with sticks instead of asking nicely.
means A trapezoidal stringed instrument played by striking the strings with small handheld hammers rather than plucking or bowing them.
from 'Dulcimer' traces back through Old French 'doulcemer' to Latin 'dulcis' (sweet) and Greek 'melos' (song/melody) — so, literally, a 'sweet song' instrument. The 'hammered' part is plainly descriptive, distinguishing it from its cousin the Appalachian dulcimer, which is plucked or strummed. The struck version itself is ancient, with relatives like the Persian santur and Chinese yangqin appearing independently across cultures long before the instrument took this name in Europe.
- origin
- Middle Eastern instrument, over 2000 years old
- mechanism
- small mallets strike strings stretched over trapezoid soundboard
- piano link
- direct ancestor of the piano's hammer action
- name irony
- struck gently, named like a demolition tool