Art & MusicGreek → English
Guitar
/ɡɪˈtɑːr/noun
A stringed instrument with a fretted neck and a flat, waisted body.
The Greek roots
κιθάρα
kithára
concert lyre
Literally: “the kithara”
Follow a root:κιθάρα5 words
The story of the word
The κιθάρα was the professional instrument of Greek concert players, a heavy wooden box lyre, nothing like a guitar to look at or to hold. Arabic took the name as qītāra, Spanish reshaped that into guitarra, and English had guitar by the 1620s. Zither and cittern descend from the same Greek noun along other routes, which is why the family resemblance sits in the name rather than the instrument.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Arabic → Spanish → English
- First recorded
- 1620s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
zithercittern
In a sentence
He tuned the guitar twice and still played it flat.