#lauta

• Lute — An ancient plucked string musical instrument, having a vaulted pear-shaped resonance box, a short neck bent backwards at a right angle, provided with frets; a lute. It was extremely popular in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, and in the Romanian space, it represented the core instrument of early folk musicians before the widespread adoption of the violin.
• Folk musician — A folk musician from Romania and the Republic of Moldova who performs traditional music (party, wedding, mourning music) within traditional troupes (taraf), usually playing the lute, violin, cimbalom, cobza, or accordion. In a historical sense, the lăutari formed special guilds passed down from generation to generation, being the core keepers of the oral musical folklore heritage.
• Young folk musician — An archaic, popular, or hypocoristic diminutive for alăutar; a young musician who plays the lute, or an apprentice fiddler who accompanies a traditional band to learn the craft of instrumental performance. In traditional lyric poetry, the term is used with an affective or poetic value to describe a discrete performer of love songs.
• Young female folk musician — An extremely rare, archaic, or regional feminine form for 'alăutaș'; a young woman or girl who performs traditional tunes on the lute, or a female apprentice within a traditional folk band. In vintage folklore and literary contexts, the term added a poetic and affective connotation, describing a female presence providing musical accompaniment at intimate gatherings.
• Young folk musician — An extremely rare, archaic, or regional masculine diminutive formed from the noun alăută (lute), used expressively to denote a small plucked string instrument or to refer, in a hypocoristic way, to a young apprentice or child learning the craft of folk music within a traditional band.
• Little lute — A popular and affective diminutive for alăută; a poetic or regional term used in the past to denote a small lute or a cobza with delicate strings. In the lyrical creations of traditional folklore (ballads, folk laments), the word is employed as a metaphor to suggest the sweetness of the sound, the sensitivity of the performer, or the state of longing of the one singing his suffering in a discrete manner.
• Archlute — A historical plucked string instrument that emerged during the Baroque period as an extended variant of the Renaissance lute. Structurally characterized by an elongated neck and a second pegbox designed to accommodate extra open bass strings (diapasons) that were not fretted, it was frequently utilized in Baroque chamber music and orchestras for performing basso continuo accompaniment.
• Arciliuto — The Italian nomenclature and international neologism for the archlute, a plucked string instrument developed during the Baroque era. This device structurally combines the traditional lute body with an extended neck supporting two separate pegboxes, allowing the tensioning of extra open bass strings used to sustain the basso continuo in seventeenth and eighteenth-century chamber music ensembles.
• Baglama — An international proper non-adapted name for a family of long-necked stringed musical instruments with a pear-shaped body, highly popular in Turkish, Greek, and Balkan traditional music, often identified with the saz.