lute

Etymology 1

From Middle French lut (modern luth), from Old French leüt, probably from Old Occitan laüt, from Arabic اَلْعُود (al-ʕūd, “wood”) (probably representing an Andalusian Arabic or North African pronunciation). Doublet of oud, lavta, and laouto.

noun

1. A fretted stringed instrument of European origin, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard.
   Coordinate term: guitar

verb

1. To play on a lute, or as if on a lute.

Etymology 2

From Old French lut, ultimately from Latin lutum (“mud”).

noun

1. Thick sticky clay or cement used to close up a hole or gap, especially to make something air-tight.
   He employed a mixture of flour and white of egg spread upon a linen cloth to cement cracked glass vessels, and used other lutes for similar purposes. 1830, Thomas Thomson (chemist), The History of Chemistry, volume 1, page 41
2. A packing ring, as of rubber, for fruit jars, etc.
3. (brickmaking) A straight-edged piece of wood for striking off superfluous clay from earth.

verb

1. To fix or fasten something with lute.
   To protect everything till it dried, a man […] luted a big blue paper cap from a cracker, with meringue-cream, low down on Jevon's forehead. 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘A Friend's Friend’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 179