Dictionary

tympany en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈtɪmpəni/

Etymology

Coined based on Ancient Greek τύμπανον (túmpanon).

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The sound made by beating a drum.
   • [T]he vvoman ſet before the Sanctuary vvith her head uncover'd, vvas adjur'd by the Prieſt to ſvvear vvhether ſhe vvas fals or no; and conſtrain'd to drink that bitter vvater vvith an undoubted curſe of rottenneſſe, and tympany to follovv, unleſſe ſhe vvere innocent. 1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC, page 39:
2. (countable, uncountable) Tympanites (distention of the abdomen).
3. (countable, uncountable) Inflation; conceit; bombast; turgidness.
   • Thine's a tympany of sense. 1682, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe:
   • Dr. Johnson, for his triads and his antithetic balances, he taxes more than once with a plethoric and tautologic tympany of sentence 1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine:

Forms