>> There is a fascinating discussion on the etymology of LUTE on the French >> lute-list. In a nutshell: not only the Greek provenance of the word is no >> longer discountable, but limiting oneself to Arabic provenance is beginning >> to look ludicrous. The messages can be found on Yahoo-Groups. > > Unfortunately, I do not speak French. Would you mind to keep us > informed? Not at all, happy to oblige: In many European languages there are LUTE-like words that describe MARINE VESSELS of obvious derivation from the familiar Greek (HA)LEUTIKA, in Italian, Spanish, Catalan, French, AND last but not least- Slavonic languages. This certainly is corroborated by the iconographic evidence of lutes predating Muslims' spewing out of Hijaz. RT
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