▪ [v1] : etymology obscure; a relation to Sem *
ʕiś ‘tree’
1
can be excluded.
▪ [v2] : Accord. to A. Dietrich, the widespread use of
ʕūd for ‘
aloe wood’ is incorrect; originally,
ʕūd rather signifies »certain kinds of resinous, dark-coloured woods with a high specific weight and a strong aromatic scent, which were used in medicine as perfume and incense (
ʕūd al-baḫūr) and were highly coveted because of their rarity and value« (entry »ʕūd« in
EI²).
▪ [v3] : The
ʕūd is »the most important musical instrument of Islamic peoples from the Atlantic shores to the Persian lands« – Dietrich, ‘ʕūd’, in
EI². — Lute-like instruments are attested far back in the history of the Middle East and have been part of musical culture in Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent since a very long time. While long-necked lutes (or harps) ultimately may be related to the Persian
setār and Indian
sitar (see ↗
qīṯāraẗ), the short-necked
ʕūd is assumed to have developed from the Persian
berbat by C9‘. – The fact that the Arabic lute was called
ʕūd is usually explained as due to the instrument’s (upper part) being made of wood (as opposed to earlier similar lutes, called
mizhar or
barbat, with a body cover made of skin/leather). However, prob. the reason was not only that it had a wooden deck, but also that the wood that was used for this purpose was
precious wood, as
ʕūd »was regarded as a luxury item, used especially for fine wood-carving and furniture-making« (
ibid.). — Another explanation (promoted, among others, by Ibn Ḫaldūn) connects it to a
wooden plectrum with which the
ʕūd allegedly was played; but this is rather unlikely, as the plectrum typically is soft (cf. its traditional name,
rīšaẗ ‘feather’). – Ar
al-ʕūd is the etymon of most Eur words for ‘lute’ (see below, section WEST). Europeans came to know the lute perh. through the crusaders, but prob. even earlier via Andalusia (the Arabs had brought musical instruments with them from the East when the conquered Southern Spain and established the Umayyad caliphate in Córdoba) or via Byzantium. In Europe, the lute received bonds (made of catgut), and from c.1500 CE onwards, it was played with the fingers rather than with a plectrum. During the Renaissance, the lute was regarded as the queen of musical instruments – art. »Laute« in
de.wiki (as of 30Oct2021).
▪ [v4] : fig. use
▪ …