Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary
כנור
The noun כנור (kinnor) describes the harp or lyre, the signature instrument of David, known for its soothing qualities (1 Samuel 16:16-23) and otherwise an instrument of prophesy (1 Samuel 10:5) and social felicity (Genesis 31:27, Isaiah 5:12, Job 21:12), expressing gratitude (Psalm 33:2), praise (43:4, 71:22, 98:5, 147:7, 150:3), riddles (49:4), dawn (57:8, 108:2), and on occasion mourning (Job 30:31).
When Israel brought home the Ark of the Covenant, king David and people accompanied it with dance and the music of harps (2 Samuel 6:5). In that way perhaps similarly, king Solomon used the same miraculous almug wood for the supports of the Temple and the royal palace as for the fabrication of harps (1 Kings 10:12). The captured of Babylon subsequently hung their harps upon willows (Psalm 137:2).
It's unclear where this word comes from but it's hugely old and appears all over the Semitic basin. Certain aspects of its many forms have allowed experts to suspect that it may actually be of Indo-European origin. The same word appears in Sanskrit, as kinnara, which describes a class of spirit beings that are typically skilled at music. This Sanskrit word consists of two elements: (1) kim, a particle of interrogation (who? what? why? how? is that?), and (2) the noun nar, meaning man (which in Greek became the familiar noun ανερ, aner).
Altogether, this Sanskrit word seems to inquire about the essential nature of man. In our article on the name Adam we argue that the Hebrews found language to be the foundational quality of humankind, but the rise of language almost certainly went hand in hand with the development of music, and specifically choral singing. At the very core of each, however, is found joy and particularly collective joy or social felicity. The word χαιρω (chairo), meaning grace (through which, according to Paul, is salvation), closely relates to the words choir, chorus and carol, but also cohort, court and even garden.
Moreover, since the word for dog, כלב (kaleb), is sometimes jocularly interpreted as "all heart" (כל, kal, all, plus לב, leb, heart) or "as if it has a heart" (כ, ke, like, plus לב, leb, heart), our word כנור (kinnor) may have seemed to the Hebrews to resemble כ (ke) + נור (ner), lamp or flowing river.
This may perhaps in part explain the thinking behind the name Chinnereth (and thus Gennesaret). The Greek name for harp is κιθαρις (kitharis), which in some eyes perhaps resembles the adjective καθαρος (katharos), meaning pure or clean. Three separate words derived from this Greek word for harp appear in Revelation 14:2:
"And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder, and (this voice that I heard was) as harpers harping with their harps."
Note that the proverbial "father" of all who play the harp was the antediluvial Jubal (Genesis 4:21), whose name means Flow.