Thingamajig Thursday: the harp

It's a New Year, and our first Thursday! So you know what that means"¦ Today I'm naming that odd thingamajig you find supporting a lampshade. It's called, rather simply, a harp. I couldn't find any special reason why it would be called a harp, other than the obvious, so I figured I'd drop a little knowledge about the origins of the other harp.

Called a kinnor, in Hebrew, the harp, or lyre as it was then referred to, is first mentioned in Genesis 4:21.

And his brother's name was Yuval: he was the father of all such as handle the lyre and pipe.

The Greeks were big on lyres and claim Orpheus as the inventor of the instrument. Whoever invented it, some of the greatest performances, I think, were by none other than Harpo Marx. Go rent Animal Crackers or Monkey Business or just about any of their hilarious films to see what I mean.