 A music scholar by the name of Eckhard Neubauer suggested that "oud" may be an Arabic borrowing from the Persian word "rōd" or "rūd", which meant string.Another researcher, archaeomusicologist Richard J. Dumbrill, suggests that "rud" came from the Sanskrit "rudrī" (रुद्री, meaning "string instrument") and transferred to Arabic (a Semitic language) through a Semitic language.However, another theory according to Semitic language scholars, is that the Arabic "ʿoud" is derived from Syriac "ʿoud-a", meaning "wooden stick" and "burning wood"—cognate to Biblical Hebrew "’ūḏ", referring to a stick used to stir logs in a fire.