Thairm

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A string made from animal gut, used on early Scottish and Irish harps and fiddles to produce sound
2. Catgut or sheep-gut cord stretched across an older Gaelic or Scots stringed instrument to be plucked or bowed
3. The twisted intestinal cord once prized as the material for strings on traditional Celtic musical instruments

Etymology: In Scottish Gaelic, "thairm" means "sound" or "music," and it also names the gut strings once used on harps and other stringed instruments. The link between the two senses is probably one of material to product: the strings were made from animal intestines, so the name for the gut came to stand for the music they produced. The word belongs to the Gaelic branch of the Celtic languages, which also includes Irish and Manx, and it is closely related to Old Irish forms meaning "sound" and "noise." Its exact earlier history is less certain, and the gut-string sense is best documented in older Irish and Scottish usage. Because the word is rare in modern English, it appears mainly in discussions of Gaelic and early Celtic music, where its double meaning of instrument-string and sound is the detail most worth noting.

Synonyms: catgut