tympanum

== English == === Etymology === Borrowed from Latin tympanum (“a drum, timbrel, tambourine; the eardrum”). Doublet of timbre, timpani, timbal, and tymbal. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈtɪm.pən.əm/ Rhymes: -ɪmpənəm === Noun === tympanum (plural tympanums or tympana) (archaic) A drum. (anatomy, zootomy) Any of various anatomic structures in various animals with analogy to a drum head: (anatomy, zootomy) The eardrum (tympanic membrane, membrana tympanica). (anatomy, zootomy) The main portion of the middle ear: the tympanic cavity (cavitas tympani). (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. (zootomy) A membranous resonator in a sound-producing organ in frogs and toads. (zootomy) (in certain birds) The labyrinth at the bottom of the windpipe. (architecture) A vertical recessed triangular space between the sides of a pediment, typically decorated. The recessed triangular space within an arch, and above a lintel or a subordinate arch, spanning the opening below the arch. (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 ==== ==== Translations ==== === 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 (tŭ́mpănon, “a kettledrum, drum”), from τῠ́πτω (tŭ́ptō, “to strike, beat, smite”). === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈtym.pa.nũː] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈtim.pa.num] === Noun === tympanum n (genitive tympanī); second declension (literally, music) drum, timbrel, tambour, tambourine (figurative) timbrel as a figure of something effeminate or enervating (transferred sense) (of things of a like shape): drum or wheel in machines for raising weights, in water organs, etc. (architecture): triangular area of a pediment panel of a door part of the clepsydra Synonym: phellos eardrum ==== Inflection ==== Second-declension noun (neuter). ==== Derived terms ==== tympanium ==== Related terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== Note: see τῠ́μπᾰνον (tŭ́mpănon) for later re-borrowings from Byzantine. === References === Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “tympanum”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 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, 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 form removed with the spelling reform of 2005; superseded by tympanon