Crwth
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The crwth (/ˈkruːθ/ or /ˈkrʊθ/), also called a crowd or rote, is a bowed lyre, a type of stringed instrument, associated particularly with Welsh music and with Folk music of England (especially related to the Middle Ages), now archaic but once widely played in Europe. Four examples have survived and are to be found in St Fagans National History Museum Cardiff, National Museum Wales Aberystwyth, Warrington Museum & Art Gallery and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The name crwth is originally a Welsh word, derived from a Proto-Celtic noun *krotto- ("round object") which refers to a swelling or bulging out, a pregnant appearance or a protuberance, and it is speculated that it came to be used for the instrument because of its bulging shape. Other Celtic words for violin also have meanings referring to rounded appearances. In Gaelic, for example, "cruit" can mean "hump" or "hunch" as well as harp or violin. Like several other English loanwords from Welsh, the name is one of the few words in the English language in which the letter W is used as a vowel.
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