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Etymology and origin of the English word lute

Pronunciation

lute1 stringed instrument

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1295
Borrowed from
Old French lut via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Arabic

Etymology

The word for the musical instrument is inherited from Middle English lute,[2] borrowed from Old French lut, also leüt,[3][4][5][6] now French luth.[3][5] The French word is probably from Old Occitan laüt,[5][7][6][4] from the Arabic name of the oud, literally “the wood”, a noun with the definite article fused to it;[3][4][8][1] the Shorter Oxford takes the form to reflect a Hispano-Arabic or North African pronunciation.[5] Merriam-Webster explains that the Arabic word meant wood or a stick and was extended to the instrument, perhaps because of its wooden sounding board, and that the article came along with the noun, as it did in alchemy, algebra and almanac.[8] The same Arabic word gave Medieval Latin lutana, Spanish laúd, Portuguese alaúde and Italian liuto.[3][9] Dutch luit, German Laute and Danish lut were borrowed in turn from Romance.[3][10] Borrowed directly from Arabic, the word became English oud.[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The stringed instrument: 1295, according to Barnhart,[4][11] the late 13th century in Etymonline.[3] The OED's first record is from 1361–2, in the account rolls of Durham Abbey.[10]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the instrument was much in fashion from the 14th to the 17th century.[10] Chaucer and Gower both mention it.[2] The verb, to play on the lute or express something by it, is recorded from 1377 in Piers Plowman, where love "luted" a psalm,[10][12] and Keats used it in 1820 of a sound like a lute's.[10] In early modern slang the lute, an instrument one "plays", was a double meaning for the vagina, as in Middleton's Michaelmas Term (1607).[13] Johnson (1755) illustrated the word with Shakespeare's "Orpheus with his lute".[14] From 1879 lute also named a stop on some harpsichords.[10][15]

Timeline

  • 1295 – the stringed instrument.[4] The OED's first record is from 1361–2.[10]
  • 1377 – verb, to express by playing the lute, in Piers Plowman.[10]
  • before 1477 – verb, to play on the lute.[10]
  • 1820 – verb, to sound like a lute, in Keats's Lamia.[10]
  • 1879 – a stop on the harpsichord.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A plucked stringed instrument with a large pear-shaped body, a rounded back and a fretted fingerboard, whose neck often bends back at the pegbox: She played a pavane on the lute.[16][15][10]
  2. A stop on a harpsichord that gives a lute-like tone.[15][10]

Verb

  1. To play the lute, or to play a tune on it.[15][10][5]
  2. To sound like a lute.[15][10]

Word family

  • archlute

lute2 clay sealant

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurgie
Borrowed from
Old French lut via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin lutum

Etymology

The word for the sealing clay is inherited from Middle English lute,[12] borrowed from Old French lut or from Medieval Latin lutum,[10][7][5][6] a special use of Latin lutum (“mud, potter's clay”).[7][5][17][15] The verb is inherited from Middle English luten,[12][15] borrowed from Latin lutō (“to daub with mud”),[10][5][15] from lutum;[5][10] French had luter from the 16th century.[10] Klein relates lutum to the second part of polluō (“to pollute”) and to lustrum (“a slough, bog”),[9] and Merriam-Webster also refers it to pollute;[15] Weekley derived it from luō (“to wash”).[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

A clay or cement used to stop an opening or make a joint airtight: about 1400, in Lanfranc's Cirurgie.[10] The Middle English Dictionary's quotations for the noun begin about 1425, in John Arderne's treatise on fistula,[12] but it records the verb, to cover a vessel with lute, before 1400, in Lanfranc.[12]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to medieval medicine and alchemy: the Middle English Dictionary records a lute of wisdom, a special cement named after the alchemists' Latin lutum sapientiae.[12] It was used for coating crucibles and retorts against fire and for sealing the joints of vessels and pipes,[10] and later also for protecting a graft.[5] From the Latin sense, lute meant simply mud from 1694 to 1756, as in Motteux's translation of Rabelais.[10][5] The verb was used both of coating with lute (1495) and of fastening things together with it (1489, Caxton).[10] In the 19th century a lute was also a rubber packing ring between the lid and the lip of a jar.[10][15]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – verb, to cover a vessel with lute, or seal its mouth.[12] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to the 14th century.[15]
  • c. 1400 – clay or cement for sealing joints and openings.[10]
  • 1489 – verb, to fasten or fix with lute.[10]
  • 1694 – mud (obsolete by 1756).[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A clay or cement used to seal a joint or opening, or to coat a porous surface, so that gas or liquid cannot pass.[15][10][5]
  2. A rubber packing ring, as for the lid of a fruit jar.[15][10]
  3. (obsolete, 1694–1756) Mud.[10][5]

Verb

  1. To seal, coat or fasten with lute: The chemist luted the joints of the retort.[15][10][5]
  • lutanist
  • lutenist
  • luthier
  • lutist
  • oud
  • pollute

Usage notes

Two minor nouns share the spelling.[10][15] A lute is a straight-edged piece of wood for striking off clay from a brick mould, or a toothless rake for levelling fresh concrete, from 1875; it comes from Dutch loet.[10][15][5] Lute was also a short form of lutestring, a glossy silk fabric, recorded in 1676.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  18. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lute.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/lute. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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