A variant spelling of cithern or cittern; a Renaissance or medieval stringed instrument with a flat body and multiple strings.
An alternate spelling of cithern or cittern, showing the spelling variation common in English before standardization. The term comes ultimately from Greek kithara through various European languages.
This spelling variant (cithren) appears in some historical documents but never became the standard spelling, which shows how arbitrary spelling standardization can be—cithren and cittern are equally valid etymologically, but cittern just happened to win out in becoming the most common historical spelling.
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