It can mean two things. In a general organological (meaning the study of the forms of instruments) sense, a "lute" is any string instrument with a neck and strings that run roughly parallel to the soundboard. This distinguishes them from zithers, which have strings parallel to the soundboard but with no neck, and harps, with … Read more

It doesn't. The neck is straight, but the pegbox angles back. Guitars, mandolins, banjos and violins all do this too, so that the strings are pulled down against the nut (otherwise they would buzz), but the lute has a more extreme angle mostly to accommodate the larger number of strings without getting absurdly long. Lutes … Read more