Arabic exportsScience, ideas & the arts
luteinstrument
The lute is the Arabic al-ʿūd, 'the wood'. Romance speakers heard the article and noun as one word (Occitan laüt, Old French leüt, English lute), and from French it went on to German, Polish and Russian. The ʿūd kept its own name in Persian, Turkish and Greek, and came back into English as oud.
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