Etymologically
Log in

cymbalum

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkym.ba.ɫũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈt͡ʃim.ba.lum][1]

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

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