Yeah I’m totally out of ideas. Plus it’s almost the holiday, and I’m
tired.
Guitar
Guitar showed up as a word in the mid seventeenth century, from the French guitare. That’s from the Old French guiterre/guiterne, from the classical Latin cithara, guitar, and Greek kithara, also guitar. It was always a stringed musical instrument, though it used to be a triangular, seven-stringed lyre-like instrument. There are several other instruments descended from these words, including the gittern and the zither, and kithara might be descended from the word sitar as well. Though this is etymology, so maybe not.
Lute
Lute is a much older word, having shown up in the late thirteenth century from the Old French lut/leut. That’s from the Old Provençal laut, a messed up form of the Arabic al-‘ud, their word for lute, which literally translates into the wood.
Harp
Harp comes from the Old English hearpe, which is also just a harp. That’s from the Proto Germanic harpon, a word of uncertain origin, though it might be related to the Late Latin harpa. Which, you know, would make sense, but again, etymology.
Lyre
Lyre showed up in the thirteenth century from the Old French lire, classical Latin lyra, and Greek lyra, so there really hasn’t been much variation in a thousand years. The word’s origin is unknown before that (though the instrument is supposedly from Egypt), though it did give us the word lyric as a lyrical poem in the late sixteenth century.
Violin
Violin showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Italian violino, a diminutive of viola. Viola actually didn’t show up in English until 1797, but it was in Italian a lot earlier than that, coming from the Old Provençal viola, and Medieval Latin vitula, and that might actually be from a Roman goddess.
Fiddle
Finally today, fiddle showed up in the late fourteenth century (violin actually replaced it as the word for the instrument). It comes from the Old English fiðele, which is somehow related to the Old Norse fiðla, though no one knows where that actually came from. Who knows? Maybe someone called it that once as a joke and it stuck.
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Orbis Latinus
Encyclopedia Mythica
Guitar showed up as a word in the mid seventeenth century, from the French guitare. That’s from the Old French guiterre/guiterne, from the classical Latin cithara, guitar, and Greek kithara, also guitar. It was always a stringed musical instrument, though it used to be a triangular, seven-stringed lyre-like instrument. There are several other instruments descended from these words, including the gittern and the zither, and kithara might be descended from the word sitar as well. Though this is etymology, so maybe not.
Lute is a much older word, having shown up in the late thirteenth century from the Old French lut/leut. That’s from the Old Provençal laut, a messed up form of the Arabic al-‘ud, their word for lute, which literally translates into the wood.
Harp comes from the Old English hearpe, which is also just a harp. That’s from the Proto Germanic harpon, a word of uncertain origin, though it might be related to the Late Latin harpa. Which, you know, would make sense, but again, etymology.
Lyre showed up in the thirteenth century from the Old French lire, classical Latin lyra, and Greek lyra, so there really hasn’t been much variation in a thousand years. The word’s origin is unknown before that (though the instrument is supposedly from Egypt), though it did give us the word lyric as a lyrical poem in the late sixteenth century.
Violin showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Italian violino, a diminutive of viola. Viola actually didn’t show up in English until 1797, but it was in Italian a lot earlier than that, coming from the Old Provençal viola, and Medieval Latin vitula, and that might actually be from a Roman goddess.
Finally today, fiddle showed up in the late fourteenth century (violin actually replaced it as the word for the instrument). It comes from the Old English fiðele, which is somehow related to the Old Norse fiðla, though no one knows where that actually came from. Who knows? Maybe someone called it that once as a joke and it stuck.
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Orbis Latinus
Encyclopedia Mythica
Appropriate. Last night I went to take in an orchestra.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought fiddle was the slang version of the more proper violin. (If you're looking for musical instruments to do, I would be very curious as to the origins of oboe, the instrument I used to play. And marginally curious about flute and clarinet.)
ReplyDeleteI thought fiddle had more to do with the way you play the instrument or the kind of music played on it - you play less serious music on a fiddle than on a violin and probably don't have the same technique.
ReplyDelete