Naming the Dulcimer

   "Does the dulcimer have a name?" asked C.

      "No," I answered, "There's really no need. We only have one."

   Actually, that isn't quite true. I've called the dulcimer 'Masterwork' before after the company that made her. Most of the time I just say dulcimer. I have two harps, Eve and Margaret. We also have four guitars. They are Alvarez,Gibson, and two Yamahas. (We had a Epiphone, but gave that to Carmen.) The two Yamahas are differentiated by owner. One is Carrie's and the other belongs to C.

   It never really occurred to me to give the dulcimer a "proper" name.

   "How about Dulsey?" C said. I scrunched up my nose. Dulsey the dulcimer sounded like a bad children's book. Then he suggested Dulcimaya. That was worse.

   The word 'dulcimer' comes from the Latin "dulcis" (sweet) and the Greek word for song "melos". Personally, I think that it a perfectly good name. What better thing for an instrument than to be called "sweet music"?

    C feels otherwise.

    "How do you say 'wooden thing with strings' in French?" I asked him. The nice thing about French is that anything sounds good. It would tickle me to say this beautiful French phrase that means "wooden thing with strings". He didn't know. His high school French didn't cover things like that. I didn't know either. The only French I ever learned is "ham and cheese sandwich". My Dad, who spent a few years stationed in France when he was in the Air Force, taught it to me. I don't know why since I don't eat ham and cheese sandwiches. (I also know the French word for 'cat'.)

   None of this was getting us anywhere.

    I looked on Wikipedia thinking that maybe knowing what country the dulcimer originated in would help us think of a name. According to Wikipedia, the dulcimer's origin is uncertain. Tradition holds that is was invented in Persia (what is now Iran). Not helpful.

   I asked C what the French words for 'Masterwork' were. He didn't know how to say 'master' in French and the word for 'work' sounded to much like travail to me. Travail (according to the Merriam Webster online dictionary) means "work especially of a painful or laborious nature", "agony, torment". That doesn't sound good. There is nothing painful or agonizing about the dulcimer except when it is out of tune.

   As you can tell I'm leaning toward a French name. Such a lovely instrument should have a musical sounding name. French rolls off the tongue more easily than my second language, German. The German word for 'dulcimer' is 'hackbrett'. It sounds like a line of knives to me.

   This debate will continue for awhile. It will be interesting to see what we come up with.