A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Tympan(e, Timpan(e, n. [ME and e.m.E. timpan (a1300), tympan (Manning), tympane (1580), OF tympan, timpan, L. tympanum.]
1. A drum, tambourine or similar instrument. Also attrib. Cf. Tymbrell n.1c1420 Wynt. iii 122.
Hys douchtyr yhyng, Wytht tympanys and … swet syngyng, Met hyr fadyr c1450-2 Howlat 760 (A).
The trumpe, and the talburn, the tympane 1503 Treas. Acc. II 392.
Ane pair of tympanes to the king c1500-c1512 Dunb. (STS) lxxxvi 15.
Cherubyne syngis sweit Osanna, With organe, tympane, harpe, and symbilyne c1550 Lynd. Test. Meldrum 157.
Solemnitlie gar thame sing my saull mes, With organe, timpane, trumpet, & clarion 1575 Dumfries B. Ct. 25 Oct.
Ane pair of tympanis coft be my lady Maxwell price xxx s. 1581-1623 James VI Poems II 50/8.
Timpanes loudeattrib. 1513 Doug. viii xii 55.
Cleopatra … The rowtis dyd assembill to feght … With tympane sound … Prouocand thame to move in the melle
2. ?Appar. put for ferreis digitis in the version of the story in the Historia Ecclesiastica viii III p. 402 by Orderic Vital. See the Amours edition I 77.c1420 Wynt. vii 1271.
Wyth tympanys scharpe, that he gert ma, Set till hys naylis, and wyth tha The childe sa fast he thrystyd … qwhill he deyd
