Word of the Day

: November 12, 2006

tantara

noun tan-TAIR-uh

What It Means

: the blare of a trumpet or horn

tantara in Context

"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.