tantara

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The Word of the Day for November 12 is:

tantara   \tan-TAIR-uh\   noun
     : the blare of a trumpet or horn

Example sentence:
     "But hardly had we sat down ere we heard the tom-toming of the kettledrum 
and tantara of trumpets and clash of cymbals...." (Sir Richard Burton, 
translator, _The Arabian Nights_)

Did you know?
     "Tantara" is a shortening of the Latin "taratantara," an onomatopoetic 
word that in ancient times that evoked the terrible sound of the war-trumpet. 
When "tantara" entered English in the 16th century, the sound it evoked was a 
merry one. "Tantara, tantara, the trumpets sound, / Which makes our hearte with 
joy abound," wrote Humphrey Gifford in 1580. Today, "tantara" is sometimes used 
as a synonym of "fanfare," a word for a short, lively sound of trumpets that 
may also be onomatopoetic in origin.





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