Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Psaltar(e, -er(e, n. Also: -air, -yr; psaltr-; Saltare. [e.m.E. psaltyr (c1470), -er, OE psaltere, OHG psalteri, -are, ON (p)saltari, L. psaltērium, a stringed instrument played by twanging, f. the Gk.]

1. The Book of Psalms. b. A copy of some, or all of, the psalms; a printed volume containing (the) psalms (= Psalm(e)-buke). c. Comb. in psalter-buk (= Psalm(e)-buke). 1436 Reg. Episc. Aberd. II 132.]
[Vnum breuiarium ad altare Sancti Andree … et psalterium in secundo folioa. c1420 Wynt. v 3516.
Saynct Jerome … translatyd the psaltare [C. saltare, W. psaltere] c1552 Lynd. Mon. 665.
Dauid … Compyld the plesand psalmes of the psaltair In his awin propir toung a1568 Scott i 122.
Sum … seme sa halye, Singand Sanct Dauidis psalter on thair bukisb. 1454 Old Dundee I 558.
A psaltar coveryt with a selch skin 1501 Ib. II 34.
Tua gret psalteris 1512 Treas. Acc. IV 347.
For ane psalter … and for bindin of it in breddis of papir with rubanis 1555 Crail Ch. Reg. 65.
Tene psalteris, all parchment, and fyne text hand 1643 McKay Hist. Kilmarnock 298.
I wish I had Rowallan's Psalter herec. c1475 Wall. xi 1393.
A psaltyr buk Wallace had on him euir

2. A selection from, or portion of, the Psalms, said or sung for a special purpose. a1508 Kennedy Flyt. 318.
Thow says for thame few psaltris, psalmis, or creidis

3. ‘Our Lady's Psalter’.A Roman Catholic devotional exercise, so called because it contained the same number (150) of Aves as there are psalms in the psalter, see also Rosarie n. a1500 Rois Garlandis 8, 9.
And vse oftymes this goldin psalter of our blissit Lady … the quhilk psalter is callit our Ladyis goldin croun