psalm
/sɑːm
/noun
1A sacred song or hymn, in particular any of those contained in the biblical Book of Psalms and used in Christian and Jewish worship: a delightful setting of Psalm 150...
- The entrance rite began with the choir singing an introit psalm, a full psalm.
- I became very attentive to the music used at Mass and collected all the responsorial psalms, hymns, and songs.
- Although usually identified as a penitential psalm, Psalm 130 is also clearly a song of hope.
Synonyms
sacred song, hymn, song of praise, religious song, anthem, carol, chant, plainsong, canticle, antiphon, introit, prayer;
psalmody, psalter
rare paean, lay, miserere
1.1 (the Psalms or the Book of Psalms) A book of the Bible comprising a collection of religious verses, sung or recited in both Jewish and Christian worship.
Derivatives
psalmic
- The singing of the book of Psalms ascribed by tradition to David, together with similar psalmic texts, formed an important part of Jewish liturgical and paraliturgical observances at the Temple of Jerusalem.
- The article discusses the Christian election, holy communion and Psalmic language in the chartist poetry of Ernest Jones.
- Introits have a fairly high proportion of non-psalmic texts; they are surpassed in this respect within the Mass Proper only by the Communion. Of the 145 core repertory chants, 101 have psalmic texts and 44 non-psalmic.
Origin
Old English (p)sealm, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek psalmos 'song sung to harp music', from psallein 'to pluck'.