Etymology

Noun

1. A stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal. It's played on the lap or horizontally on a table. Some have their own legs. These musical instruments are played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).

   The two classes of dulcimer are the "Mountain" or "Appalacian" dulcimer (plucked and played with a quill, usually a goose quill) and the hammer dulcimer (played by tapping on the strings with small "hammers"). See also: zither

Quotations

1. • In a vision once I saw :
   • It was an Abyssinian maid,
   • And on her dulcimer she played,
   • Singing of Mount Abora. - Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Trivia