Plural of cittern; multiple plucked stringed instruments with a flat, pear-shaped body used especially in Renaissance and baroque music.
Plural form of cittern, which derives from Old French cithare via Latin and Greek origins meaning 'lyre' or 'harp.' The instrument name traveled across languages as the instrument itself spread through European courts.
Citterns were so affordable and portable compared to lutes that they became the 'ukulele of the Renaissance'—ordinary people could actually learn them, making music-making democratic in a way it hadn't been before.
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