Plectron

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device used to pluck or strum strings on musical instruments like guitars
2. An implement designed for striking strings, particularly in stringed musical applications
3. A tool utilized in music performance to generate sound by engaging with stringed instruments

Etymology: The Greek instrument-maker's word here is older than the guitar by more than two thousand years. In ancient Greek, "plēktron" was the striking tool used on a lyre, and it came from "plēssein," meaning "to strike, to smite, to sting." The sense of a sharp blow is still present in the root, so a tool for setting strings vibrating was named for the act of hitting. The word passed into Latin as "plēctrum," and English borrowed it from there. English speakers had an older native term, "sleġel" in Old English, but the Latin-derived word displaced it, so the classical name for the lyre's striker won out over the native one.

Synonyms: pick, plectrum