Now rare. Also 4 tabre, 4–5 tabur, 5 -yr, 5–6 taboure, 4–8 taber, 6–9 tabber. See also TABORN. [a. OF. tabur (11th c.), tabour (13–16th c.), beside tanbor, tambur (14–15th c.), tambour (16th c.–) = Pr. tabor, tanbor, Sp. tambor (OSp. atambor), It. tamburo: the relations between the forms in ta- and those in tam-, tan- have not been clearly determined. The word is held to be of Oriental origin, and has been compared with Pers. tabīrah, and tabūrāk, both meaning ‘drum,’ and with Arab. ṭanbūr a kind of lute or lyre. The actual history is uncertain: see Dozy, and Devic in Littré; also Gaston Paris in Romania, 1902.]
1. The earlier name of the drum; in later use (esp. since the introduction of the name drum in the 16th c.), A small kind of drum, used chiefly as an accompaniment to the pipe or trumpet; a taborin or tabret. Now Hist., arch., or poetic.
c. 1290. Beket, 1851, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 159. Of bellene and of tabours so gret was þe soun.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8166. Of trompes & of tabors þe sarazins made þere So gret noyse.
c. 1300. Havelok, 2329. Þe gleymen on þe tabour dinge.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, I. 58. Men myȝtten as well haue huntyd an hare with a tabre.
14[?]. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 616/28. Timpanum, a taber, or a tymbre.
14[?]. in Hist. Coll. Citizen London (Camden), 220. He stode a-pon an hylle wyth hys tabyr and hys pype.
c. 1460. Emare, 389. Ther was myche menstralse, Trommpus, tabours, and sawtre.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cxlvii. 176. Than the kyng mounted on his horse, and entred into the towne with trumpets, tabours.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1553/2. Singing of psalmes, marching about their fiers with tabber and pipe.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 175. Then I beate my Tabor, At which like vnback’t colts they prickt their eares.
1624. Capt. J. Smith, Virginia, IV. 155. Will any goe to catch a Hare with a Taber and a Pipe?
1693. Humours Town, 2. The Clamours of a Country-Mob … is more than the beating of a Tabour.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., iv. The whole neighbourhood came out to meet their minister,… preceded by a pipe and tabor.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. ii. A marvellous horse that beat a tabor with his fore feet.
1880. in Grove, Dict. Music, II. 754/2. The tabor was a diminutive drum, without snares, hung by a short string to the waist or left arm, and tapped with a small drumstick. Ibid. (1907), III. 750/2. The pipe and tabor, for a long time very popular throughout Europe, are now obsolete in this country.
fig. 1601. Hakewill, Van. Eye, xvii. (1615), 87. The Duke of Vandosme, the common tabour of the French wits.
1624. Quarles, Job xi. 69. I am become a By-word, and a Taber, To set the tongues, and eares of men, in labour.
b. transf. The drummer (with his drum).
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. II. 79. Taberes & tomblers & tapesters fele.
1789. Burney, Hist. Mus., III. iii. 254. As a new married couple went out of the church the violins and tabors attended them.
† 2. The tympanum or drum of the ear. Obs.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 84. The aire … moueth the litle hammer of the eares,… and so maketh a sound by meanes of the litle taber, through whose sounde the spirites of hearing are awakened.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 592. The first cauity of the stony bone, which before we called the Tympane, that is the drume or Taber.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tabor-beating; tabor-like adj. or adv.; tabor-stick, a drumstick.
13[?]. K. Alis., 2158 (Bodl. MS.). Now rist grete tabor betyng, Blaweyng of pypes, & ek trumping.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Hawking, d j b. With yowre hande or with yowre tabur styke becke yowre hawke to come to you.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 27. The whole Fabrick … covered atop Taber-like.
