tympanum

Forms

tympanum n (genitive tympanī); second declension^[1] The form typanum occurs in Varro, Catullus and Maecenas, all in galliambic verse.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek τύμπανον (túmpanon, “kettledrum, drum”), also ⟨τύπανον⟩, from τύπτω (túptō, “to strike, beat”).^[2][3][1][4] Köbler gives the PIE root as Proto-Indo-European *(s)teup- (“to push, strike”), or alternatively compares an Assyrian word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus;^[5] in the Poenulus a speaker is asked why he did not bring a tambourine while talking like that, as something effeminate.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a small drum or tambourine, especially as beaten by the priests of Cybele, as in Lucretius, Catullus' Attis, Virgil and Ovid.^[2][3] From the shape it is a drum or revolving cylinder in machines, as Lucretius' lifting gear with pulleys and drums, a float in Vitruvius' water organ, and a solid wheel for carts in Virgil.^[2] In architecture Vitruvius uses it of the face of a pediment and the panel of a door;^[2] Pliny the Elder, after Fenestella, uses it of a kind of round table.^[2] Afranius seems to use it of a dropsical swelling.^[2]

In Church Latin it is a drum or timbrel, and in medieval Latin also a bell.^[6][7] In the 16th century the anatomist Gabriele Falloppio used tympanum of the eardrum, and English took it in that sense in the 1610s;^[4] Italian timpani comes from it too.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a tambourine as effeminate.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the drums of Cybele's priests and of lifting machines.^[2][3][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of solid cart wheels.^[2][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of the face of a pediment.^[2][5]
• 1610s – Borrowed into English as tympanum, the eardrum.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small drum, tambourine, especially in the worship of Cybele; as something effeminate.^[2][3][6][1]
2. A drum or revolving cylinder in machines; a float in a valve; a solid wheel.^[2][1]
3. (architecture) The face of a pediment; the panel of a door.^[2][1]
4. A kind of round table.^[2]
5. A dropsical swelling.^[2]
6. (Medieval Latin) A bell.^[7]
7. (New Latin) The eardrum.^[4][1]

Word family

• tympanicus
• tympaniolum
• tympanium

Related words

• tympanista
• tympanistria
• tympanītēs
• tympanīticus
• tympanīzans
• tympanotriba
• tympanizō
• English tympanum
• English timpani

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill