theorbo

the·or·bo

[thee-awr-boh]
noun, plural the·or·bos.
an obsolete bass lute with two sets of strings attached to separate peg boxes, one above the other, on the neck.

Origin:
1595–1605; < Italian teorba, variant of tiorba, special use of Venetian tiorba, variant of tuorba traveling bag ≪ Turkish torba bag; so called from the bag it was carried in

the·or·bist, noun
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World English Dictionary
theorbo (θɪˈɔːbəʊ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n , pl -bos
music an obsolete form of the lute, having two necks, one above the other, the second neck carrying a set of unstopped sympathetic bass strings
 
[C17: from Italian teorba, probably from Venetian, variant of tuorba travelling bag, ultimately from Turkish torba bag]
 
the'orbist
 
n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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00:10
Theorbo is always a great word to know.
So is callithumpian. Does it mean:
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

theorbo

large bass lute, or archlute, used from the 16th to the 18th century for song accompaniments and for basso continuo parts. It had six to eight single strings running along the fingerboard and, alongside them, eight off-the-fingerboard bass strings, or diapasons. Both sets of strings had separate pegboxes connected by an S curve in the instrument's neck. On 18th-century theorbos all but the two top courses of strings were double.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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