tibicen

English

Etymology

From the Latin tībīcen (“piper, flautist”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɪˈbaɪsɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪsɪn

Noun

tibicen (plural tibicines)

1. (chiefly Roman Antiquities, rare) A flute-player; a piper, flautist.
   • 1776, Charles Burney, chapter X, in A General History of Music, volume I, published 1789, page 173:

     When the Lacedaemonians went to battle a Tibicen played soft and soothing music to temper their courage.

   • 1891, Charles A. Ward, “Napoleonic Rule”, in Oracles of Nostradamus, page 251:

     But this man’s words are spirit itself, and burn their niche in Time, to last as long as that will. Take two of them: “Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you!” and again, “Behold the sun of Austerlitz!” When you speak, speak thus to men; such words are deeds; and come not as from one who beateth the air to the pitchpipe of the tibicen Ciceronical, but as the bullet to its butt; speak swordpoints, that press between the joints and marrow.

   • 2012, Timothy J. Moore, Music in Roman Comedy, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 14:

     We have no archaeological evidence that we can with certainty attribute to original performances of Plautus and Terence. We can, however, learn a great deal by examining Greek and later Roman evidence, including artistic portrayals of singers, tibicines, and theatrical performances, and some surviving tibiae.

Synonyms

• (flute-player): aulete (Greek equivalent), tibicinist (rare)

Related terms

• tibicinate
• tibicination
• tibicinist

Translations

flute-player — see flautist

References

• NED X, part i (Ti-U; 1st ed., 1926), § 1 (Ti-Tz), page 2/1, “‖Tibicen”

Latin

Etymology

For *tībiicen, tībia (“pipe”, “flute”) +‎ -cen

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /tiːˈbiː.ken/, [t̪iːˈbiːkɛn]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /tiˈbi.t͡ʃen/, [t̪iˈbiːt͡ʃen]

Noun

tībīcen m (genitive tībīcinis); third declension

1. piper, flautist
2. (transferred sense) a kind of pillar, support, or prop of a building

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	tībīcen	tībīcinēs
Genitive	tībīcinis	tībīcinum
Dative	tībīcinī	tībīcinibus
Accusative	tībīcinem	tībīcinēs
Ablative	tībīcine	tībīcinibus
Vocative	tībīcen	tībīcinēs

Derived terms

• tībīcinō

Related terms

• tībia
• tībīcina

Descendants

• English: tibicen
• Italian: tibìcine

References

• “tibicen”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tibicen”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to sing to a flute accompaniment: ad tibiam or ad tibicinem canere
    
• “tibicen”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers