lyre

See also: lyře

English

A lyre

Etymology

From Ancient Greek λύρᾱ (lúrā, “lyre, a stringed instrument with a sounding-board formed of the shell of a tortoise”). Doublet of lira and Lyra.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.ə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.ɚ/, /laɪɹ/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
• Homophones: liar, lier, lire

Noun

lyre (plural lyres)

2. (music) An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.
   1. Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.
3. A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.
4. (obsolete) A composer of lyric poetry.

Synonyms

• (a general class of instruments): yoke lute

Derived terms

• bell lyre
• lyre-guitar
• lyre snake

Related terms

• Lyra
• lyrebird
• lyrical

Translations

stringed musical instrument

• Albanian: jongar (sq)sharki (sq), sharkë (sq) (archaic)
• Arabic: كِنَّارَة f (kinnāra)
• Armenian: քնար (hy) (kʻnar)
• Basque: lira (eu)
• Bulgarian: лира f (lira)
• Catalan: lira (ca) f
• Chinese: 里拉 (zh) (lǐlā) (lǐlā)
• Coptic: ⲗⲩⲣⲁ (lura), ⲕⲓⲑⲁⲣⲁ (kithara)
• Czech: lyra (cs) f
• Danish: lyre c
• Dutch: lier (nl) f
• Esperanto: liro (eo)
• Estonian: lüüra
• Faroese: lýri m
• Finnish: lyyra (fi)
• French: lyre (fr) f
• German: Leier (de) f, Lyra (de) f
• Greek: λύρα (el) f (lýra)

  Ancient: λύρα f (lúra), κιθάρα f (kithára), (Epic) φόρμιγξ f (phórminx)

• Hiligaynon: árpa
• Hungarian: líra (hu)
• Icelandic: lýra f
• Ido: liro (io)
• Irish: lir f
• Italian: lira (it) f
• Japanese: ライアー (raiā)
• Latin: lyra f
• Lithuanian: lyra
• Middle Persian: [script needed] (barbūt)
• Occitan: lira (oc) f
• Old English: hearpe
• Ottoman Turkish: چنك (çenk)
• Persian: چنگ (fa) (čang), چنگ رومی (fa) (čang-e rumi)
• Piedmontese: lira f
• Polish: lira (pl) f
• Portuguese: lira (pt) f
• Romanian: liră (ro) f
• Russian: ли́ра (ru) f (líra)
• Serbo-Croatian: lȋra (sh) f
• Slovak: lýra f
• Slovene: lira (sl) f
• Spanish: lira (es) f
• Swahili: lira, kinubi kidogo
• Swedish: lyra (sv) c
• Turkish: lir (tr)
• Ugaritic: 𐎋𐎐𐎗 (knr)
• Welsh: telyn gron f

lyre-shaped music holder

• Icelandic: lýra f

References

• 2012. Kisir and Tanbura. Dahab Khalil and Artur Simon. Pg. 96.
• 2007. Origins and Development of Musical Instruments. Jeremy Montagu. Pg. 128.

Verb

lyre (third-person singular simple present lyres, present participle lyring, simple past and past participle lyred)

1. (rare) to play the lyre
   • 1922, Thomas Hardy, “Penance”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 143:

     Alas, far times ago / A woman lyred here / In the evenfall; one who fain did so / From year to year; / And, in loneliness bending wistfully, / Would wake each note / In sick sad rote, / None to listen or see!

See also

• harp

Further reading

• “lyre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “lyre”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Ryle, rely

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /liʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

lyre f (plural lyres)

1. lyre
2. (rare) a cutting tool resembling a lyre

Descendants

• → Romanian: liră
• → Turkish: lir

Further reading

• “lyre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

lyre f or m (definite singular lyra or lyren, indefinite plural lyrer, definite plural lyrene)

1. (music) a lyre

Anagrams

• lyer, -yler, ryle, yler

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

lyre f (definite singular lyra, indefinite plural lyrer, definite plural lyrene)

1. (music) a lyre

Derived terms

• Kraviklyra
• kraviklyre