Bibliotheca Polyglotta

1a wood; b stick, rod, pole; c branch, twig, switch; d item, stalk; e cane, reed; 2 aloes (wood); 3 lute (musical instrument); 4a body, build, physique; b strength, force, intensity; c pl. ʔaʕwād, full intensity (e.g., of a disease) – WehrCowan1979.

conc

▪ [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
▪ …

1. Cf. Kogan2015 (Sw#90): protSem *ʕiś- ‘tree’ is preserved in Akk iṣu, Ug ʕṣ, Hbr ʕēṣ, Sab ʕṣ́, Gz ʕəṣ́, Te ʕəč̣č̣ät, etc. ‘tree, wood’, and also Aram *ʕiś- ‘wood’, Ar ʕiḍḍ ‘small thorny trees’, ʕuḍḍ ‘thick, large firewood’, ʕiḍāh ‘any great trees having thorns’.

hist

▪ …

cogn

▪ – . (modHbr ʕūd ‘lute’ is from Ar).
▪ …

disc

▪ The fact that ʕūd does not have cognates in Sem underlines the term’s peculiarity. Should one assume that it is a foreign word?
▪ Lokotsch1927 #2127: In the same way as the lute, the instrument accompanying love songs, has reached us from the Islamic East, so probably also medieval Minnesang is of Oriental provenience; for discussion, see ↗ṭarab (etymon of Fr troubadour?).
▪ …

west

▪ Engl lute (lC13) < oFr lut, leut < oProv laut < Ar al-ʕūd. – Cf. also Ar al-ʕūd > mLat lutana > Span laud, Port alaude, It liuto – EtymOnline.
▪ Ge Laute < mHGe lūte, mDu lute, luyte, Du luit < oFr leüt (C13) (> Fr luth), oProv laüt (c1300), It liuto (lC13) < Span laúd, older form alaúd (eC14), alod (mC13) < Ar al-ʕūd – DWDS (< Pfeiffer, Etym. Wb.)
▪ Ar al-ʕūd ‘wood; instrument made from wood, lute, cither’ > It liuto, liudo, oFr leüt, Fr luth, Span laud, Port alaude, Rum laută, Du luit, Engl lute, Ge Laute; [Rum laută > Tu lauta, lāʔuṭa > nGrk laoùta, Bulg lauta ‘violin’, Serb Iout ‘lute’, Ukr łavuta ‘lute, violin; thickhead, fool’, ljutnja, Ru Ijutnja, Pol lutnia, Cz loutna ‘lute’ – Lokotsch1927 #2127.
▪ …

deriv

►ʕūd al-ṯiqāb, n., matchstick, match;
►ʕūd al-ṣalīb, n., peony (Paeonia; bot.);
►ʕūd al-kibrīt, n., matchstick, match;
►raḫāwaẗ al-ʕūd, n.f., weakness of character;
►ṣulb al-ʕūd, adj., of robust physique; strongly built, husky, sturdy; stubborn, resistant, unbending, unyielding, relentless;
►ṣalābaẗ al-ʕūd, n.f., sternness, severity, hardness, obstinacy, stubbornness, inflexibility, relentlessness;
►ladn al-ʕūd, adj., lissome, lithe, of elastic physique;
►ṯaqqafa ʕūdah, expr., to train, educate s.o.;
►ʕaǧama ʕūdah, expr., to test s.o., put s.o. to the test;
►kasara ʕūdah, expr., to break s.o.’s power of resistance, crush s.o.’s spirit

►ʕawwādaẗ, pl. āt, woman lutist: n.prof.f.

For other items pertaining to √ʕWD/ʕYD, cf. ↗ʕāda, ↗ʕādaẗ, ↗ʕādī, ↗ʕiyādaẗ, ↗ʕād, and ↗ʕīd (√ʕYD), as well as, for the whole picture, root entries ↗√ʕWD and ↗√ʕYD.

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