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Definition 2024


tibicen

tibicen

English

Noun

tibicen (plural tibicines)

  1. (chiefly Roman Antiquities, rare) A flute-player; a piper, flautist.
    • 1776, Charles Burney, A General History of Music (1789), volume I, chapter x, page 173:
      When the Lacedaemonians went to battle a Tibicen played soft and soothing music to temper their courage.
    • 1891, Charles A. Ward, Oracles of Nostradamus, “Napoleonic Rule”, 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 9781107006485, 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.

Related terms

  • tibicinate
  • tibicination
  • tibicinist

Synonyms

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

Translations

References

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

Latin

Etymology

tībia (pipe”, “flute) + -cen

Pronunciation

Noun

tībīcen m (genitive tībīcinis); third declension

  1. piper, flautist

Declension

Third declension.

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

Descendants

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
  • Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, 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