different between tympany vs tympan

English

Etymology

Coined based on Ancient Greek ???????? (túmpanon).

Pronunciation

• Homophones: timpani, tympani

Noun

tympany (countable and uncountable, plural tympanies)

1. The sound made by beating a drum.
2. (medicine) Tympanites (distention of the abdomen).
3. Inflation; conceit; bombast; turgidness.
   • 1682, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe

     Thine's a tympany of sense.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of De Quincey to this entry?)

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin tympanum.

Noun

tympan (plural tympans)

1. (printing) A piece of cloth padding placed under the platen of a letterpress to distribute the pressure on the sheet being printed.
2. (music) The stretched membrane of a drum.
3. (music) A percussion instrument consisting of a hollow cylinder with such a membrane at each end.
4. (architecture) A tympanum.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tympanum. Doublet of timbre, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??.p??/

Noun

tympan m (plural tympans)

1. (anatomy) eardrum
2. (anatomy) middle ear
3. (architecture) tympanum
4. (historical) treadwheel, treadmill
5. (by extension) hydraulic wheel
6. (dated or literary, music) various percussion instruments, such as gongs, tympans, tambourines, etc.
7. (printing) tympan

Derived terms

• tympanique

Further reading

• “tympan” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).