CITERN, a musical instrument resembling the guitar, for which it has been frequently mistaken. Anciently it was called the cistrum, and till latterly was held in great contempt both in France and Britain. The practice on this instrument being easy, it was formerly the amusement and recreation of lewd women and their visitors, inasmuch that in many of the old English dramatic writers it is made the symbol of a woman who lived by prostitution. It was also the common amusement of waiting customers in barbers' shops, as being the most easy of all instruments to play on, and therefore it was thought that almost every body could make use of it.