word of the day: timbal

The word of the day is timbal:

Etymology:  = modern French timbale (1646 in Hatzfeld & Darmesteter), Italian timballo , Spanish timbal , Portuguese timbal , timbale , substituted for, and apparently altered from, earlier French attabale (Cotgrave 1611), Italian taballo (Florio 1611), Spanish atabal , Portuguese attabale , see atabal n. It is not clear in which language or under what influence the change was made (perhaps in Italian, which had already dropped initial a): compare the French alteration of tabour to tambour. The spelling tymbal was apparently due to the influence of cymbal. 
1. Entomol. A membrane (resembling a drum-head) in certain insects, as the cicada, by means of which a shrill chirping sound is produced. (OED)


"The live cicadas he'd set loose in the church apparently had stagefright and refused to sing, although one perched on a microphone, as though to lip- (or timbal-) synch."

 - Nick Paumgarten, "Brood dude", 24 June 2013 The New Yorker