Flatpickers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who play stringed instruments by plucking the strings with a plectrum typically made of a flat piece of material; people who select flat objects or surfaces; those associated with a style of music or guitar technique centered on using a flat pick
2. Musicians specializing in a technique where a flat pick is used to strum or pick the strings of guitars or similar instruments; persons who choose or handle objects that are level or smooth; groups identified by their use of flat picks in playing stringed instruments
3. Players of guitars or other stringed instruments employing a flat pick to produce sound; individuals who pick out items that have a flat shape or characteristic; practitioners of a particular musical picking style defined by a flat plectrum usage

Etymology: Flatpicker is a plain compound: "flat," meaning a thin, level pick held between the thumb and finger, plus "picker," someone who plucks strings. The name belongs to guitar and mandolin players who strum and pick with a flat plectrum rather than with their fingers, a technique closely associated with bluegrass music. The term is recorded only in the sense of a musician, and the instrument-playing sense is the one that matters in practice. Because "flatpicker" is a modern compound built from ordinary English words, it does not appear in older dictionaries with a history of its own. Its meaning is fixed by the technique it names: the flat pick is what distinguishes it from fingerpicking and from the rounder, thicker picks used in other styles. The sense of "one who picks out items with a flat shape" is a literal extension of the same compound, but it is rarely used. The musical sense dominates.

Synonyms: guitarists, musicians, players