tympanum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tympanum (“a drum, timbrel, tambourine; the eardrum”). Doublet of timbre and timpani.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɪm.pən.əm/
• Rhymes: -ɪmpənəm

Noun

tympanum (plural tympanums or tympana)

1. (archaic) A drum.
2. (anatomy, zootomy) Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head:
   1. (anatomy, zootomy) The eardrum (tympanic membrane, membrana tympanica).
   2. (anatomy, zootomy) The main portion of the middle ear: the tympanic cavity (cavitas tympani).
   3. (zootomy, entomology) A thin tense membrane covering the hearing organ on the leg or body of some insects, sometimes adapted (as in cicadas) for producing sound.
   4. (zootomy) A membranous resonator in a sound-producing organ in frogs and toads.
   5. (zootomy) (in certain birds) The labyrinth at the bottom of the windpipe.
3. (architecture) A vertical recessed triangular space between the sides of a pediment, typically decorated
   1. The recessed triangular space within an arch, and above a lintel or a subordinate arch, spanning the opening below the arch
      • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

        It was a black-and-white picture of a Romanesque doorway, with flanking saints and a lively Last Judgement in the tympanum […] .

4. (engineering) A drum-shaped wheel with spirally curved partitions by which water is raised to the axis when the wheel revolves with the lower part of the circumference submerged; used for raising water, as for irrigation.

Derived terms

• epitympanum
• hypotympanum
• mesotympanum
• pseudotympanum
• tympanic

 

Translations

eardrum — see eardrum

middle ear — see middle ear

hearing organ

• Vietnamese: màng nhĩ (vi), màng tai (vi)

triangular space between the sides of a pediment

• Arabic: قَلْب القَوْصَرَة (qalb al-qawṣara)
• Azerbaijani: təmpanum, timpan
• Belarusian: тымпан m (tympan)
• Bengali: মধ্যকর্ণ (moddhokorno)
• Bulgarian: тимпан m (timpan)
• Catalan: timpà (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鼓室 (zh) (gǔshì)

• Danish: tympanon
• Dutch: timpaan (nl) m
• Finnish: tympanon (fi), tympaani
• German: Tympanum m
• Greek: τύμπανο (el) n (týmpano)
• Hebrew: תוֹף הַאוֹזֶן m
• Hindi: कान का पर्दा (kān kā pardā)
• Hungarian: timpanon (hu)
• Icelandic: gaflflötur m
• Italian: timpano (it) m
• Kannada: ಟೈಂಪಾನಮ್ (ṭaimpānam)
• Kazakh: тимпанум (timpanum)
• Korean: 진동판 (ko) (jindongpan)
• Luxembourgish: Tympanum
• Macedonian: тимпан m (timpan)
• Polish: tympanon (pl) m
• Portuguese: tímpano (pt) m
• Romanian: timpan (ro) m
• Russian: тимпан (ru) m (timpan)
• Swedish: tympanon (sv) c, tympan (sv) c
• Tagalog: timpano (tl)
• Thai: หูตอนใน (hū txn nı)
• Turkish: kulak davulu (tr)
• Uzbek: timpanum
• Vietnamese: chứng màng nhĩ
• Yiddish: טימפּאַנום m (timpanum)

References

• “tympanum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “tympanum”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek τῠ́μπᾰνον (túmpanon, “a kettledrum, drum”), from τῠ́πτω (túptō, “to strike, beat, smite”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈtym.pa.num/, [ˈt̪ʏmpänʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈtim.pa.num/, [ˈt̪impänum]

Noun

tympanum n (genitive tympanī); second declension

1. (literally, music) drum, timbrel, tambour, tambourine
   1. (figurative) timbrel as a figure of something effeminate or enervating
2. (transferred sense) (of things of a like shape):
   1. drum or wheel in machines for raising weights, in water organs, etc.
   2. (architecture):
      1. triangular area of a pediment
      2. panel of a door
      3. part of the clepsydra

         Synonym: phellos

Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tympanum	tympana
Genitive	tympanī	tympanōrum
Dative	tympanō	tympanīs
Accusative	tympanum	tympana
Ablative	tympanō	tympanīs
Vocative	tympanum	tympana

Derived terms

• tympanium

Related terms

• tympaniolum
• tympanista
• tympanistria
• tympanotriba
• tympanīticus
• tympanītēs
• tympanīzans

 

Descendants

Note: see τῠ́μπᾰνον (túmpanon) for later re-borrowings from Byzantine.

Descendants of tympanum in other languages

• → Catalan: timpà
• → English: tympanum, timpani
• → French: tympan
• → Galician: tímpano
• → Irish: tiompán
• → Italian: timpano; tempano (Lucca), tempono (Arezzo)
• → Neapolitan: timpanu (Calabria)
• → Old English: timpan
• → Portuguese: tímpano
• Provençal: temp(l)o
• Romanian: tâmpină, tîmpină, întâmpina
• Sardinian: trimpanu
• → Spanish: tímpano, tembal; timple (Murcia)

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “tympanum”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 13: To–Tyrus, page 455
• “tympanum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tympanum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tympanum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• tympanum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “tympanum”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “tympanum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “tympanum”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

tympanum n

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by tympanon