From OE 'hearpe,' from Proto-Germanic *harpō — shared across all Germanic languages, ultimate origin debated, possibly 'to pluck.'
A large stringed instrument with a roughly triangular frame, played by plucking the strings with the fingers, and capable of producing a shimmering, ethereal sound.
From Old English 'hearpe,' from Proto-Germanic *harpō (harp), of uncertain ultimate origin. Cognates appear across all Germanic languages — Old Norse 'harpa,' Old High German 'harfa,' Dutch 'harp' — suggesting the instrument and its name were well established in the Germanic world before any written records. Some scholars have proposed a connection to PIE *kerp- (to pluck, to harvest), linking the harp to the fundamental action of plucking, though this etymology is debated. The word may instead be a
The harp is one of the few instruments whose name traveled from Germanic into Romance languages rather than the other way around. French 'harpe,' Italian 'arpa,' and Spanish 'arpa' are all borrowed from Germanic — a rare case of a musical term flowing against the usual Latin-to-Germanic current.