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. 

Happy Wild Word Friday!

Blessings, Sue