Lute

LUTE (Fr. Luth; Ital. Liuto; Germ. Laute; Spanish Laud; Port. Alaude). A large and beautiful stringed instrument with a long neck and fretted fingerboard; at one time much in use, but now obsolete. In mediæval Latin the lute is called Testudo and the guitar Cithara, both inaccurate identifications of ancient Greek instruments of very different construction. [See Lyre.] The lute is of Oriental origin, and its Arabic name Al'ud—from which its European names are derived by the omission of...