[Echoic; more usual in reduplicated form TUM-TUM.] An imitation of the sound made by plucking a tense string, as in a musical instrument, or by striking a drum, or the like. Also as vb. trans. and intr. to produce this sound; hence Tumming vbl. sb.
c. 1830. Negro Song. Don’t ye ’ear de banjo tum?
1882. Elwes, trans. Capello & Ivens’ Benguella to Yacca, II. iv. 77. The echoes for some time repeating the tumming of the drums.
1911. Daily News, 23 June, 3. The monotonous tum to which the dancers keep time for weeks together.
