sb. Forms: 6 tamburin, 7 -ine, timburine, 9 tambourin, -borine, 8– tambourine. [app. ad. F. tambourin, dim. of tambour (see prec.), but used not in the sense of that word, but in that of F. tambour de basque.]
1. A musical instrument consisting of a wooden hoop having skin or parchment stretched over one side, and pairs of small cymbals, called jingles, placed in slots round the circumference, small bells being sometimes fastened to the edge. It is played by shaking, striking with the knuckles, or drawing the fingers across the parchment.
The earlier names for this or a similar instrument mentioned in the Bible were timbre and timbrel. It is not clear what Spenser and Jonson meant by tamburin, timburine; the word was known to Blount 1661 only from Spenser; the modern use was unknown to Bailey, to Johnson, and to Ash (1775); it is certain in quot. 1782; but as it does not agree with that of F. tambourin it is difficult to know how it arose.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., June, 59. I sawe Calliope wyth Muses moe … Theyr yuory Luyts and Tamburins forgoe. Ibid., Gloss., Tamburines, an olde kind of instrument, which of some is supposed to be the Clarion.
1637. B. Jonson, Sad Sheph., I. iii. Though all the Bels, Pipes, Tabors, Timburines ring.
1661. in Blount, Glossogr. [giving Spenser’s gloss].
1791. Walker, Dict., Tambarine, a tabour, a small drum.
1782. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., I. 17. The tambourine … which is well known in the streets of this metropolis,… being a hoop covered with parchment, and furnished with small pieces of metal hanging to the edges of it.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 38. To join the dance where gipsy fiddlers play, Accompanied with thumping tambourine.
1835. Miss Mitford, Belford Regis, I. 225–6. The gipsy-boy, beating the march in Bluebeard, with the most approved flourishes, on a tambourine of the largest size.
1884. V. de Pontigny, in Grove, Dict. Mus., IV. 55. Tambourine (Fr. Tambour de Basque) … consists of a wooden hoop, on one side of which is stretched a vellum head, the other side being open.
1899. Kipling, Absent-Minded Beggar, i. Will you kindly drop a shilling in my little tambourine For a gentleman in khaki ordered South? [Refers to its use as a collecting dish.]
Comb. 1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xli. Some black tambourine-player, with a great turban on.
2. Tambourine pigeon (also ellipt. tambourine): an African species of pigeon, so called from the resonance of its note.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tambourine.
1896. List Anim. Zool. Soc., 466. Tympanistria bicolor, Tambourine Pigeon.
Hence Tambourine v. intr., to play the tambourine.
1884. J. Payne, Tales fr. Arabic, II. 233–4. Then they gave not over wine-bidding and rejoicing and making merry and tambourining and piping till the night waned and the dawn drew near.
1891. Daily News, 5 Sept., 3/3. The jingle of the tambourining poke-bonnetted lass [i.e., member of the Salvation Army].
