Also zitt(h)er. [ad. G. zither: see CITHER, CITHERN.] A musical instrument (introduced into England c. 1850 from Austria) having from thirty to forty strings let into the lower rim of a shallow resonance-box, and played by striking with the fingers and thumb.
In modifications of the instrument a fretted finger-board is fitted across a resonance-box shaped like a heart (bow zither) or like a viola (viola zither), and the instrument is played with a bow.
1850. B’ness Tautphœus, The Initials, iv. I expected some such proposition as soon as I heard the sound of the zither.
1871. Meredith, Harry Richmond, xxx. Nothing haunted me so much as those tones of her zither.
1874. Miss R. H. Busk, Vall. Tirol, Pref. p. vi. Just as … the barrel-organ supersedes the zitther and the guitar.
b. Comb., as zither music, player; zither-banjo, a modification of the zither, resembling a banjo.
1850. B’ness Tautphœus, The Initials, iv. The untutored singers and zither players.
1881. W. Black, Sunrise, iii. He was passionately fond of zither music.
1900. Referee, 9 Dec., 3 (Cass. Suppl.). Mr. ——’s ‘Valse des Fleurs,’ with a zither-banjo.
Hence Zitherist, a performer on the zither.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 Feb., 6/1. Countless ‘cuttings’ sing the praise of the Zitherist to his Highness the Duke of Nassau.
