פְּסַנְתֵּר

The word "פְּסַנְתֵּר" (psanter) originates from the Book of Daniel (3:5), where it appears in Aramaic as part of a list of musical instruments: "pesanterin, symphony and all kinds of music." The Aramaic word is actually a borrowing from the Greek word "ψαλτήριον" (psaltērion), which denoted a certain stringed musical instrument of the harp type. The word "פְּסַנְתֵּר" in its modern use to describe the piano was revived in Modern Hebrew in the 19th century, when there was a need to find Hebrew names for modern musical instruments. The choice of this word was based on the phonetic similarity between "פְּסַנְתֵּר" and the European words for piano: piano in Italian and English, Klavier in German. The use of the word פְּסַנְתֵּר to describe the modern instrument is documented in Haskalah literature and Hebrew press of the 19th century, but it was not the only term used. Ben-Yehuda, for example, suggested the term "מַכּוֹשִׁית" (makoshit, from makosh, a kind of small hammer in the Talmud). Other terms that were suggested included "yad-nagen" (player's hand), "rav-kol" (many-voice), "rav-meitar" (many-string), and "kolan" (sounder). In the end, the term "פְּסַנְתֵּר" is the one that was accepted by the public and became the standard.