# tympanum
## English
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈtɪm.pən.əm/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* 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
*** 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:It was a black-and-white picture of a Romanesque doorway, with flanking saints and a lively Last Judgement in the tympanum […] .
* (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
### 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: /ˈtym.pa.num/, [ˈt̪ʏmpänʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈtim.pa.num/, [ˈt̪impänum]

### 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
* This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes then please add them!

#### Inflection

Second-declension noun (neuter).

#### Derived terms

* tympanium

#### Related terms

* tympaniolum
* tympanista
* tympanistria
* tympanītēs
* tympanīticus
* tympanīzans
* tympanotriba

#### Descendants

Note: see τῠ́μπᾰνον (tŭ́mpănon) for later re-borrowings from Byzantine.
* → 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, 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
* “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