Zitherist is a derived term of zither.

As nouns the difference between zitherist and zither

is that zitherist is someone who plays the zither while zither is a musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings, placed on a horizontal surface, and played with a plectrum and fingertips; similar to a dulcimer in the norwegian harpeleik and swedish cittra versions, the instrument is considered a chorded zither and usually has 7 (norwegian) to 9 (swedish) chords, some with as many as 11 strings each, which are mostly strummed and damped as chords, although sometimes plucked the norwegian harpeleik and swedish cittra are still in production by a german manufacturer.