What is "tabor"

Tabor \Ta"bor\, n. [OF. tabor, tabour, F. tambour; cf. Pr. tabor, tanbor, Sp. & Pg. tambor, atambor, It. tamburo; all fr. Ar. & Per. tamb?r a kind of lute, or giutar, or Per. tab[=i]r a drum. Cf. Tabouret, Tambour.] (Mus.) A small drum used as an accompaniment to a pipe or fife, both being played by the same person. [Written also tabour, and taber.]

Tabor \Ta"bor\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Tabored; p. pr. & vb. n. Taboring.] [Cf. OF. taborer.] [Written also tabour.]

1. To play on a tabor, or little drum.

2. To strike lightly and frequently.

Tabor \Ta"bor\, v. t. To make (a sound) with a tabor.

also tabour, "small drum resembling a tamborine," c.1300, from Old French tabour, tabur "drum; din, noise, commotion" (11c.), probably from Persian tabir "drum," but evolution of sense and form are uncertain; compare tambourine.

n. 1 Tábor (city in the Czech Republic) 2 A city in Slovenia 3 (surname)

n. a small drum with one head of soft calfskin [syn: tabour]

Tábor (; ) is a city of the Czech Republic, in the South Bohemian Region. The name became popular and nowadays translates to "camp" or "encampment" in Czech.

Tabor or tabret refers to a portable snare drum played with one hand. The word "tabor" is simply an English variant of a Latin-derived word meaning "drum"—cf. , It has been used in the military as a marching instrument, and has been used as accompaniment in parades and processions.

A tabor has a cylindrical wood shell, two skin heads tightened by rope tension, a leather strap, and an adjustable gut snare. Each tabor has a pitch range of about an octave: the larger the tabor, the lower the pitch. It is played by just one stick, which usually strikes the snare head. The tabor is suspended by a strap from the forearm, somewhere between the elbow and wrist. When played, the shell is virtually parallel with the ground.

The tabor is most widely known as accompaniment for the pipe and other small flutes, and most famously as the percussive element in the " pipe and tabor" one man band configuration. The tabor is beaten on the snare side.

In Spain, a deep drum is used for a tabor by pipe and taborers, and in England a shallow tom tom is sometimes used, although medieval icons of pipe and tabor usually display a large shallow tabor similar in shape to a bodhrán.

Georges Bizet scored for the Tabor Drum in his L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2, and Aaron Copland calls for it in his Appalachian Spring and El Salon Mexico.

Tabor was the designation given to an irregular unit of indigenous infantry and cavalry recruited in Morocco during the period of French intervention and occupation (1908-56).

A tabor was a formation of three or four goums. A goum in this case was the Moroccan equivalent to a company and a tabor would thereby be equivalent to a battalion. Larger groups of tabors, equivalent to regiments or brigades, were also employed.

While the use of goums as tribal irregulars goes back to the beginning of the 20th century, additional tabors were created by the French during World War II as a display of power because the Germans, after having overrun France, limited the size of their military forces. One way of getting around these restrictions was the creation of auxiliary colonial forces (i.e. tabors) nominally for internal security duties. These Moroccan units would later go on to fight in North Africa once Operation Torch began and in the fight for Sicily ( Operation Husky) and Mainland Italy, notably at the Fourth Battle of Monte Cassino. The 4th Tabor of Goums were used in the Fight for Troina in central Sicily.

The Regulares of the Spanish Army were organized into infantry tabors (battalions) and cavalry tabor ( squadrons).

Tabor is the surname of:

• Augusta Tabor (1833-1895), American philanthropist and first wife of Horace Tabor
• Elizabeth Baby Doe Tabor (1854-1935), second wife of Horace Tabor
• Charles F. Tabor (1841-1900), American lawyer, politician and New York State Attorney General
• David Tabor (1913-2005), British physicist
• Hans Tabor (1922–2003), Danish diplomat, politician and Foreign Minister of Denmark (1967-1968)
• Harry Zvi Tabor (1917-2015), Israeli physicist
• Horace Tabor (1830-1899), millionaire miner and U.S. senator
• James Tabor (born 1946), New Testament and religious studies scholar
• Jim Tabor (1916-1953), American Major League Baseball player
• Joan Tabor (1932-1968), American film and TV actress
• Jordan Tabor (1990-2014), English footballer
• June Tabor (born 1947), English singer, predominantly of folk music
• Michael Tabor (Black Panther) (1946-2010), African-American member of the Black Panther Party acquitted of conspiracy to bomb public buildings
• Phil Tabor (born 1956), American former National Football League player
• Ty Tabor (born 1961), lead guitarist, songwriter and backup vocalist for the band King's X