Forms: 1 cim-, cymbal, 4–6 symbal, 5 cym-, symbale, cimbelle, 6 cimbal, 6–7 cymball, 4– cymbal. [ad. L. cymbalum, a. Gr. κύμβαλον, deriv. of κύμβη hollow of a vessel, cup. In OE. directly from L.; in ME. partly through OF. cymble, in 15th c. cymbale, the latter a learned adaptation of the L. word.]
1. One of a pair of concave plates of brass or bronze, which are struck together to produce a sharp ringing sound.
Till late in the 18th c. apparently known only as the name of ancient and foreign instruments of the type described (esp. as mentioned in the Bible).
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter cl. 5. Herʓað hine in cymbalan bel hleoðriendum herʓað in cimbalan wynsumnisse.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 202. Cimbalan oððe psalteras oððe strengas.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1415. Symbales & sonetez sware þe noyse.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. xiii. 1. I am maad as bras sownnynge, or a symbal [1388 cymbal] tynkynge.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxlii. (1495), 946. Cymbales … ben smytte togider and sowneth and ryngeth.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cl. 3. Prayse him in the cymbals and daunse.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 14. A great noyse of cimbals, drumslades, timbrelles, shames … and diuerse other musical instrumentes.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. iv. 53. The Trumpets, Sackbuts, Psalteries, and Fifes, Tabors, and Symboles, and the showting Romans.
1629. Milton, Christ’s Nativity, 208. In vain with cymbals’ ring They call the grisly king.
1795. Southey, Occas. Pieces, ii. It is the funeral march … Hark! from the blacken’d cymbal that dead tone!
a. 1839. Praed, Poems, II. 331. Hark to the cymbal, and the bellowing drum!
b. fig. (with reference to 1 Cor. xiii. 1).
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., xv. 217. I often wonder at the sort of passionate delight which Milverton, and people like him, have in the tinkling of cymbals.
2. Formerly applied loosely or ignorantly to other musical instruments.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The modern cymbal is a paltry instrument, chiefly in use among vagrants, gypsies, &c. It consists of steel wire, in a triangular form, whereon are passed five rings, which are touched and shifted along the triangle with an iron rod held in the left hand.
1745. J. G. Cooper, Power Harmony, I. (R.). Let but the tuneful rod On brazen Cymbal strike.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 160. It took me just five months to learn the—cymbal, if you please—the hurdy-gurdy ain’t it’s right name.
3. A kind of stop on an organ.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 174. In large organs the great organ often contains both a mixture and a cymbal, the latter with more ranks than the former.
1876. Hiles, Catech. Organ, x. (1878), 76. Cymbel, the most acute of the Mixture stops, and formed exclusively of octaves.
4. A sort of spongy cake or doughnut. U.S. local.
1860. in Worcester.
1867. O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, xix. The genteel form of doughnut called in the native dialect cymbal … which graced the board with its plastic forms.
5. attrib. and Comb., as cymbal-beating, -player, -tinkler; † cymbal doctor, a teacher who gives forth an empty sound (cf. 1 Cor. xiii. 1).
1649. Milton, Eikon., viii. (1851), 395. How much he was the Disciple of those Cymbal Doctors.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VII. xi. 351. Roman triumphs and ovations, Cabiric cymbal-beatings.
1889. Furnivall, in Pall Mall Gaz., 14 Dec., 2/1. Some talk and writing of a certain cymbal-tinkler being a greater poet … than Browning.
Hence (chiefly nonce-wds.) Cymbal v., to play on cymbals; Cymbaled ppl. a. (a) furnished with cymbals; (b) produced or accompanied by cymbals; Cymballing vbl. sb., playing on cymbals. Cymbaleer, -lier [F. cymbalier], a cymbalist. Cymbalics, music produced by cymbals. Cymbaline a., cymbal-like. Cymbalist, Cymballer, a player on the cymbals.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 13140 (Trin.). Before þe kyng in his palaise … She cymbaled tomblyng wiþalle.
1864. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XII. ix. With pomp and professional cymballing.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 500. Among the statues, statue-like, Between a cymbal’d Miriam and a Jael.
1861. Lytton & Fane, Tannhäuser, 22. Cymbal’d music.
1836. F. Mahoney, Rel. Father Prout, Songs of France, iv. (1859), 309. Now come the cymbaleers.
1859. Sala, Tw. round Clock (1861), 379. Brassy screeds, and tinkling cymbalics.
1878. E. Jenkins, Haverholme, 224. The cymbaline clatter of the Turcophile Gazette.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Cymbalist, he that plays on the Cymbals.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 349. One of the Duke of York’s black cymbalists.
c. 1878. Oxford Bible-Helps, 239. David appointed Asaph chief of the cymbalists.
1879. E. Arnold, Lt. Asia (1883), 47. A chosen band Of nautch girls, cup-bearers, and cymballers.
