Editing Harp (section)

== Terminology and etymology ==
The modern English word harp comes from the Old English ''hearpe''; akin to Old High German ''harpha''.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Harp |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionaries |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/harp |access-date=30 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913133045/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/harp |archive-date=13 September 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> A person who plays a pedal harp is called a "harpist";<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Harpist |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionaries |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/harpist |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018071631/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/harpist |archive-date=18 October 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> a person who plays a folk-harp is called a "harper" or sometimes a "harpist";<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Harper |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionaries |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/harper |access-date=25 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624023221/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/harper |archive-date=24 June 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> either may be called a "harp-player", and the distinctions are not strict.

A number of instruments that are not harps are none-the-less colloquially referred to as "harps". Chordophones like the [[aeolian harp]] (wind harp), the [[autoharp]], the [[psaltery]], as well as the piano and [[harpsichord]], are not harps, but [[zither]]s, because their strings are parallel to their soundboard. Harps' strings rise approximately perpendicularly from the soundboard. Similarly, the many varieties of [[harp guitar]] and [[harp lute]], while chordophones, belong to the [[lute]] family and are not true harps. All forms of the [[lyre]] and [[kithara]] are also not harps, but belong to the fourth family of ancient instruments under the chordophones, the ''lyres'', closely related to the ''zither'' family.

The term "harp" has also been applied to many instruments which are not even chordophones. The [[vibraphone]] was (and is still) sometimes referred to as the "vibraharp", though it has no strings and its sound is produced by striking metal bars. In blues music, the harmonica is often casually referred to as a "blues harp" or "harp", but it is a [[free reed]] wind instrument, not a stringed instrument, and is therefore not a true harp. The [[Jew's harp]] is neither Jewish nor a harp; it is a [[plucked idiophone]] and likewise not a stringed instrument. The [[laser harp]] is not a stringed instrument at all, but is a harp-shaped electronic instrument controller that has laser beams where harps have strings.