Etymology Dictionary

TABOUR, TABOR,  a small drum.  (F.,—Span.,—Arab.,—Pers.?)   M. E. tabour, Havelok, 2329.—F. tabour, 'a drum, a tabor;' Cot.   Mod. F. tambour; Littré gives the spellings tabur, 11th cent.; tabour, 13th to 16th century.   Cf. Prov. tabor, tanbor (cited by Littré); Span. tambor, O. Span. atambor (Minsheu); Ital. tamburo.   The F. word was most likely borrowed from Span. tambor, also called atambor, where the prefix a- stands for the Arab. def. art. al, shewing that the word was borrowed from the Moors.—Arab. tambúr, 'a kind of lute or guitar with a long neck, and six brass strings; also, a drum;' Rich. Dict., p. 976.   He gives it also as a Pers. word, and Devic seems to think that the word was borrowed from Persian.   The initial letter is the 19th of the Pers. alphabet, sometimes written th, not the ordinary t.   On the same page of Rich. Dict. we also find Pers. tumbuk, a trumpet, clarion, bagpipe, tambal, a small drum; also Arab. tabl, a drum, a tambourin, Pers. tablak, a small drum, p. 964.   Also Pers. tabír (with the ordinary t ), a drum, kettle-drum, a large pipe, flute, or hautboy, p. 365; tabúrák, a drum, tabour, tambourin, a drum beaten to scare away birds, p. 364.   See the account in Devic, who considers the form tambúr as derived from Pers. tabír; and the form tabúrák to be dimin. of Pers. tabúr*, a form not found.   β. It will be observed that the sense comprises various instruments that make a din, and we may note Port. atabale, a kettle-drum, clearly derived from a for al, the Arab. article, and Pers. tambal, a drum.   All the above words contain a base tab, which we may regard, with Mr. Wedgwood, as being of imitative origin, like the English dub-a-dub and tap.   This is rendered likely by the occurrence of Arab. tabtabat, the sound made by the dashing of waterfalls; Rich. Dict. 963; cf. Arab. tabbál, a drummer, ibid.   Der. tabor-er, Temp. iii. 2. 160; tabour-ine, Antony, iv. 8. 37, from F. tabourin, 'a little drum,' Cot.; tabour-et, Bp. Hall, Sat. iv. I. 78, a dimin. form; shortened to tabret, Gen. xxxi. 27.   And see tambourine.