cistre (French)
Where does "cistre" come from?
The word cistre traces back to the Ancient Greek 'kithára', an instrument name likely borrowed from even older Near Eastern sources like the Hurrian 'kinnar'. After entering Latin as 'cithara', it passed through Middle French as 'citre' and was eventually influenced by the name of another instrument, the 'sistrum'. Interestingly, this ancient lineage makes 'cistre' a linguistic cousin to both the modern 'guitar' and 'cithare'.
Full etymology tree
- cistre (French), 'cittern'
- inherited from citre (Middle French)
- inherited from *cithera (Vulgar Latin)
- inherited from cithara (Latin), 'cithara, cittern, zither, lyre, lute, guitar'
- borrowed from κιθάρα (Ancient Greek), 'lyre'
- inherited from κιθάρα (Pre-Greek)
- from root *kinnar (Proto-Hurro-Urartian), 'lyre, harp'
- inherited from κιθάρα (Pre-Greek)
- borrowed from κιθάρα (Ancient Greek), 'lyre'
- inherited from cithara (Latin), 'cithara, cittern, zither, lyre, lute, guitar'
- inherited from *cithera (Vulgar Latin)
- semantic loan from sistre (French), 'sistrum'
- borrowed from sistrum (Latin), 'sistrum'
- borrowed from σεῖστρον (Ancient Greek), 'sistrum'
- derived from σείω (Ancient Greek), 'to shake'
- borrowed from σεῖστρον (Ancient Greek), 'sistrum'
- borrowed from sistrum (Latin), 'sistrum'
- inherited from citre (Middle French)
Ancestors
- cithara (Latin)
- κιθάρα (Ancient Greek)
Cognates and doublets
- cithare (French)
- guitare (French)
Descendants and derived words
- cistre (Catalan)
- cistre (Portuguese)
Updated March 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris