Word Origins

 

*TYMPANY

Used in modern times as a collective noun to designate the aggregation of kettledrums in an orchestra, this word is actually the Anglicized form of the Latin tympanum, “a drum,” from the Greek tympanon, “a drum,” from typtein, “to strike, beat.” The modem use of tympany may have arisen from the mistaken belief that this spelling, or at least the pronunciation thereof, represented the Latin plural, tympani.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)