Also 7 theorboe, 7–8 -orba; 7 theorb’, 7–8 -orb, 8–9 -orbe. [ad. F. téorbe, théorbe (17th c.), ad. It. tiorba ‘a kind of musicall instrument used among countrie people’ (Florio, 1598), Sp. tiorba. The spelling with th appears first in Eng. (prob. after the THEO- group); the ending -o for It. and Sp. -a occurs in other words: see -ADO. Origin of the It. word unknown: some suggest that it was named after the inventor.] A large kind of lute with a double neck and two sets of tuning-pegs, the lower holding the melody strings and the upper the bass strings; much in vogue in the 17th century. (Cf. ARCHLUTE.)
1605. Chapman, All Fooles, Plays 1873, I. 144. Cor. Take thy Theorbo for my sake a little. Val. By heauen, this moneth I toucht not a Theorbo.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 252. Two singular fellowes played together vpon Theorboes.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., I. lv. There sweet Religion strings and tunes, and skrues The Souls Theorb’, and doth infuse Grave Dorick Epods.
1690. Shadwell, Am. Bigot, IV. i. I had provided this drum to sing to, which is better than a Theorb, or Harpsychord.
1697. trans. C’tess D’Aunoy’s Trav. (1706), 258. I never saw any Virginals or Theorba’s here.
1899. E. Gosse, J. Donne, i. 28. A madrigal for the theorbo.
1906. Blackw. Mag., Sept., 338/2. The whole household purchased Theorbes.
attrib. and Comb. 1657. J. Gamble (title), Ayres and Dialogues. To be Sung to the Theorbo-Lute or Bass-Viol.
1676. T. Mace, Musick’s Monum., 236. A Stop … which my Work-man calls the Theorboe Stop.
1688. Playford (title), Harmonia Sacra…: with a Thorow-bass for the Theorbo-Lute, Bass-Viol, Harpsichord, or Organ.
1880. Shorthouse, J. Inglesant, xxii. He found a young man,… playing on a double-necked theorbolute.
Hence Theorboed ppl. a., converted into a theorbo; Theorbist, a player on the theorbo.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 252. These two Theorbists concluded the night’s musicke.
1889. A. J. Hipkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 100/2. Early in the 17th century many large lutes had been altered to theorbos by substituting double necks for the original single ones…. The theorbo engraved in Mersenne’s ‘Harmonie Universelle’ (Paris, 1636) is really a theorboed lute.
