cymbalum

Forms

cymbalum n (genitive cymbalī); second declension^[1] Also cymbalon.^[2] Catullus has the genitive plural cymbalum.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κύμβαλον (kúmbalon, “cymbal”),^[2][4][1] from κύμβη (kúmbē, “bowl, cup”).^[1][5][6] Köbler takes the Greek word further back to Proto-Indo-European *kumb- (“bend, vessel”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Cicero,^[4][5] and Lewis & Short also cite his contemporary Lucretius.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a cymbal, usually in the plural: two hollow brass plates struck together, used in the rites of Cybele and Bacchus, at other festivals, and, Lewis & Short add, to keep bees from flying away.^[3] Varro says swarms of bees are brought back with cymbals and clapping.^[2] Vitruvius uses it of a cymbal-shaped valve in the water organ.^[2][3] In the singular it was a term of abuse for an empty, tiresome talker: Pliny the Elder says Tiberius called the grammarian Apion cymbalum mundi, “the world's cymbal”, and a poem of the Appendix Vergiliana sends off a crowd of schoolmen as the empty cymbal of youth.^[3][2] Church Latin has it as “cymbal”.^[7] English took chime from it about 1300, at first meaning “cymbal”, and cymbal in the mid-15th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero has the word.^[4][3][5]
• 116–27 BC – Varro, of cymbals used to bring back bees.^[2][5]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has the genitive plural cymbalum.^[2][3][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius, of a valve in the water organ.^[2][3][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder reports Tiberius' name for Apion, “the world's cymbal”.^[3][5]
• c. 1300 – English chime, first meaning “cymbal”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cymbal, usually in the plural.^[2][3][1][7]
2. A term of abuse for an empty, tiresome talker.^[2][3]
3. A cymbal-shaped valve in the water organ.^[2][3]

Word family

• cymbalicus

Related words

• tympanum
• English cymbal
• English chime

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson