Editing Timpani (section)

==Etymology and alternative spellings==
First attested in English in the late 19th century, the Italian word {{lang|it|timpani}} derives from the [[Latin language|Latin]] {{lang|la|[[Tympanum (hand drum)|tympanum]]}} (pl. {{lang|la|tympana}}), which is the [[Latinisation (literature)|latinisation]] of the Greek word {{lang|grc|τύμπανον}} ({{Transliteration|grc|tumpanon}}, pl. {{Transliteration|grc|tumpana}}), 'a hand drum',<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dtu%2Fmpanon τύμπανον], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> which in turn derives from the verb {{lang|grc|τύπτω}} ({{Transliteration|grc|tuptō}}), meaning 'to strike, to hit'.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dtu%2Fptw τύπτω], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> Alternative spellings with ''y'' in place of either or both ''i''{{'}}s—''tympani'', ''tympany'', or ''timpany''—are occasionally encountered in older English texts.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tympani, Tympanist |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tympani |website=Merriam-Webster |access-date=28 October 2018}}</ref> Although the word ''timpani'' has been widely adopted in the English language, some English speakers choose to use the word ''kettledrums''.<ref name=grove>{{cite book|title=The New Grove Encyclopædia of Music and Musicians|edition=2nd|first=George|last=Grove|author-link=George Grove|editor=Stanley Sadie|editor-link=Stanley Sadie|date=January 2001|publisher=Grove's Dictionaries of Music|pages=Volume 18, pp826–837|isbn=978-1-56159-239-5|no-pp=true|title-link=Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians}}
</ref> The German word for timpani is {{lang|de|Pauken}}; the Swedish word is {{lang|sv|pukor}} in plural (from the word {{lang|sv|puka}}), the French and Spanish is {{lang|es|timbales}}, not to be confused with the [[timbales|latin percussion instrument]], which would actually supersede the timpani in the traditional Cuban ensemble known as [[Charanga (Cuba)|Charanga]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cZH22u6_p50C&q=haitian&pg=PA66 |title=Music from Cuba: Mongo Santamaria, Chocolate Armenteros, and Other Stateside Cuban Musicians |author=Charley Gerard |page=67 |year=2001 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |access-date=28 October 2018|isbn=9780275966829 }}</ref>

The tympanum is mentioned, along with a faux name origin, in the ''[[Etymologiae]]'' of [[Isidore of Seville|St. Isidore of Seville]]:

<blockquote>''{{lang|la|Tympanum est pellis vel corium ligno ex una parte extentum. Est enim pars media symphoniae in similitudinem cribri. Tympanum autem dictum quod medium est, unde et margaritum medium tympanum dicitur; et ipsud ut symphonia ad virgulam percutitur.}}''<ref>Isidore of Seville, ''Etymologiae'' 3.22.10, Bill Thayer's edition of the Latin text at LacusCurtius [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Isidore/3*.html#22 online.]</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>The tympanum is a skin or hide stretched over one end of a wooden frame. It is half of a [[symphonia]] (''i.e. another type of drum'') and it looks like a [[sieve]]. The tympanum is so named because it is a half, whence also the half-pearl is called a tympanum. Like the symphonia, it is struck with a drumstick.<ref name="Barney">{{cite book|last=Barney|first=Stephen|title=The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|page=98}}</ref></blockquote>

The reference comparing the tympanum to half a pearl is borrowed from [[Pliny the Elder]].<ref>''Natural History'' IX. 35, 23. Quoted in {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Symphonia|volume=26|page=289|first=Kathleen|last=Schlesinger|authorlink=Kathleen Schlesinger}}</ref>