LUTHIER
Wild Word Friday!
This past week has been wonderfully hectic for me. It included the release of my 6 Alaska books in Ebook format by Open Road Media. (Hooray!) We also had a houseful of company over Memorial Day weekend. (Yay!) Now we’re helping our daughter move into her new apartment. (WooHoo!) I’m telling you all that to explain that this Wild Word Friday might look a little familiar to you, because it first ran in 2010. However, I’ve made a couple of updates.
So, on to our Wild Word: LUTHIER.
What the heck is a LUTHIER?
That was my question when my husband first told me he wanted to become one. Huh?
That was also when I was told – by him – that a LUTHIER is a person who makes stringed instruments, traditionally stringed instruments made of wood. You know, guitars, violins, mandolins, banjos…
The word LUTHIER has an interesting and very ancient history. Its base word is ‘ud (the ‘ mark means the word is pronounced with a long U sound). ‘Ud is from the Arabic and it means wood or stick. The word ‘ud eventually morphed into a meaning associated with a Middle Eastern stringed instrument and came our way (to the English language, I mean) via the Romance languages . An initial letter L was appended from from the Arabic word for the, which is al. So we have al’ud, a word that in the thirteenth century got a bit twisted by Romance language speakers (think Spanish and French) into the word lute.
You can see it’s not a very big step from lute to LUTHIER – a lutemaker.
Do you play a stringed instrument?
Blessings,
Sue
(Photo from Wikipedia Commons.)
hi Sue and Neil,
to answer the question: no, I don’t play a string instrument, my husband plays guitar, really wonderful to listen to, so relaxing.
What kind of instruments has Neil made so far? are they for your own use or are they for others ?
Is your daughter going to be living close by ye? (if so, that must be really nice).
love,
Jackie
Jackie, I was looking back through replies and realized I didn’t answer you here yet. My apologies! So far Neil has made a banjo from scratch and has rebuilt my mandolin. He has another mandolin all taken apart to repair for a friend or ours and has solved a lot of problems other people have had with their guitars. He has a project in the works – two mandolins for us, and his dream is to someday build a violin.
Yes, our daughter is only a 5-hour drive away. So much easier than a 2-day flight away! I love that phrase, “close by ye!”
Thanks for your reply Sue. Neil has been busy by the sound of it. I always love seeing my husband fixing things and helping other people.
I had to smile when I read: “only a 5-hour drive away”… I totally understand where you coming from… my oldest daughter is also only 5 hours apart from me, she lives in Holland, from my front door to hers it is 5 hours by car, plane and train. Not to bad as they say in Ireland.