Etymologically
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guitar

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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
  • 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