TYMPANUM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Tympanum

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/tˈɪmpənəm/ Listen

noun

Tympanum n. (pl. E. tympanums, L. tympana)

(Anat.)

(a)

The ear drum, or middle ear. Sometimes applied incorrectly to the tympanic membrane. See Ear.

(b)

A chamber in the anterior part of the syrinx of birds.

(Zool.) One of the naked, inflatable air sacs on the neck of the prairie chicken and other species of grouse.

(Arch.)

(a)

The recessed face of a pediment within the frame made by the upper and lower cornices, being usually a triangular space or table.

(b)

The space within an arch, and above a lintel or a subordinate arch, spanning the opening below the arch.

(Mech.) A drum-shaped wheel with spirally curved partitions by which water is raised to the axis when the wheel revolves with the lower part of the circumference submerged, used for raising water, as for irrigation.

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Etymology of 'Tympanum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tympanum" Quotes from Famous Books

... 3. From the repetition of sounds at certain intervals of time; as we hear them with greater facility and accuracy, when we expect them; because they are then excited by volition, as well as by irritation, or at least the tympanum is then better adapted to assist their production; hence the two musical times or bars; and hence the rhimes in poetry give pleasure, as well as the measure of the verse: and lastly the pleasure we receive from music, arises from the associations of agreeable ...

— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... eyes open?—Yes! and his mouth too. Surprise has this effect—to make one dumb, Yet leave the gate which Eloquence slips through As wide as if a long speech were to come. Nigh and more nigh the awful echoes drew, Tremendous to a mortal tympanum: His eyes were open, and (as was before Stated) his mouth. What ...

— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... with their parent, Architecture, and were the aids of Religion and Government. On the friezes of Greek temples, we see coloured bas-reliefs representing sacrifices, battles, processions, games—all in some sort religious. On the pediments we see painted sculptures more or less united with the tympanum, and having for subjects the triumphs of gods or heroes. Even when we come to statues that are definitely separated from the buildings to which they pertain, we still find them coloured; and only in the later periods of Greek civilisation does the differentiation of ...

— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer

... the cabinet consisted of a series of drawers, rising one above the other, and terminated by a triangular pediment, its tympanum ornamented with some beautiful little bronzes. The drawers themselves were concealed by two doors, opening in the centre, and covered with a most intricate design ...

— The Mystery Of The Boule Cabinet - A Detective Story • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... splintered themes—melodies they are not—in the Pierrot Lunaire. I have been informed that the ear should play a secondary role in this "new" music; no longer through the porches of the ear must filter plangent tones, wooing the tympanum with ravishing accords. It is now the "inner ear," which is symbolic of a higher type of musical art. A complete disassociation of ideas, harmonies, rhythmic life, architectonic is demanded. To quote an admirer of the Vienna revolutionist: "The entire man in you must be made over ...

— Ivory Apes and Peacocks • James Huneker

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