ETYM French guitare.
A stringed instrument usually having six strings; played by strumming or plucking.
Six-stringed, or twelve-stringed, flat-bodied musical instrument, plucked or strummed with the fingers. The Hawaiian guitar, laid across the lap, uses a metal bar to produce a distinctive gliding tone; the solid-bodied electric guitar, developed in the 1950s by Les Paul and Leo Fender, mixes and amplifies vibrations from electromagnetic pickups at different points to produce a range of tone qualities.
Derived from a Moorish original, the guitar spread throughout Europe in medieval times, becoming firmly established in Italy, Spain, and the Spanish American colonies. Its 20th-century revival owes much to Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream, and John Williams. The guitar's prominence in popular music can be traced from the traditions of the US mid-West; it played a supporting harmony role in jazz and dance bands during the 1920s and adapted quickly to electric amplification.