tympany

noun — 3 senses

tympany

noun

/ˈtɪmpəni/

Etymology Coined based on Ancient Greek τύμπανον (túmpanon).

1

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

Medicine, Sciences Tympanites (distention of the abdomen).

3

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 sentence1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.