Possibly named for its almond-shaped body — the mandolin may share its etymology with the almond-shaped halos in Renaissance paintings.
A stringed musical instrument with a rounded body and a fretted neck, played by plucking paired metal strings with a plectrum.
From Italian mandolino, diminutive of mandola, which is itself from Latin pandura, from Greek pandoura meaning three-stringed lute Key roots: pandoura (Greek: "three-stringed lute").
The mandolin's name may contain a hidden reference to almonds. The intermediate form mandola possibly derives from Italian mandorla (almond), describing the instrument's almond-shaped body. If true, both the mandolin and the geometric shape mandorla (the almond-shaped aureole in religious art) share an almond ancestry.