guitar

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɡɪˈtɑː/, US /ɡɪˈtɑːr/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish guitarra, partly through guitare,^[2][3][4] ultimately from Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithárā, “cithara, a kind of lyre”),^[2][3][5] through Latin cithara.^[5][6] MWU traces it through Arabic qīṭār,^[7] while Etymonline thinks the Arabic word perhaps came from Spanish or Greek.^[5] The Greek word is possibly from a Mediterranean language,^[2] or perhaps from Persian sihtar, the source of sitar.^[5] It is a doublet of cithara, zither and gittern.^[2][6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A musical instrument of the lute family with six strings: 1621 in the OED and Barnhart, as guittara in Ben Jonson's Gipsies Metamorphosed.^[8][2] MWU dates it to 1668.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Greek kithara gave many local instruments in post-classical Europe, and several reached English: citole and giterne (early 14th century), gittern, cithern (1560s), cittern (1590s), cither (about 1600) and later zither.^[5][6] In the 17th century the word was also spelled guitarra, gittar and guitarre,^[5][2] and it was associated with the earlier gittern, known in England by 1350.^[2] The guitar was particularly popular in Spain and at times in France and England.^[5]

Timeline

• 1621 – the instrument (guittara).^[8][2]
• 1688 – the form gittar.^[2]
• c. 1817 – verb, to serenade with a guitar.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A stringed musical instrument with a long neck and usually six strings, played by plucking or strumming.

Word family

• guitarist
• guitarfish
• acoustic guitar
• air guitar
• electric guitar
• Hawaiian guitar
• pedal steel guitar
• slide guitar

Related words

• cithara
• zither
• gittern
• cittern
• sitar

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press