The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tintinnabulum \Tin`tin*nab"u*lum\, n.; pl. Tintinnabula. [L., a bell. See Tintinnabular.] A bell; also, a set or combination of bells or metal plates used as a musical instrument or as a toy.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A small clinking bell. 2 A set of bells or metal plates used as a musical instrument or as a toy.
Wikipedia
A Tintinnabulum is a bell mounted on a pole, placed in a Roman Catholic Basilica to signify the church's link with the Pope.
The tintinnabulum consists of a small gold bell within a golden frame crowned with the papal tiara and Keys of Heaven. If the Pope was to say Mass within the Basilica, the tintinnabulum would be used to lead the very special procession down the shrine's aisle. But now these symbols are not mentioned in the 1989 Vatican directives.
A tintinnabulum is a bell in a Roman Catholic Basilica.
Tintinnabulum may also refer to:
- Tintinnabulum (Ancient Rome), a wind chime
- Tintinnabuli, a music compositional style devised by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt
- "Tintinnabulum", a song on the album Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary by Karl Jenkins
- Dendropsophus tintinnabulum, a species of frog
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In ancient Rome, a tintinnabulum (less often tintinnum) was a wind chime or assemblage of bells. A tintinnabulum often took the form of a bronze phallic figure or fascinum, a magico-religious phallus thought to ward off the evil eye and bring good fortune and prosperity.
A tintinnabulum was hung outdoors in locations such as gardens, porticoes, houses, and shops, where the wind would cause them to tinkle. The sounds of bells were believed to keep away evil spirits; compare the apotropaic role of the bell in the " bell, book, and candle" ritual of the earlier Catholic Church.
Hand-bells have been found in sanctuaries and other settings that indicate their religious usage, and were used at the Temple of Iuppiter Tonans, "Jupiter the Thunderer." Elaborately decorated pendants for tintinnabula occur in Etruscan settings, depicting for example women carding wool, spinning, and weaving. Bells were hung on the necks of domestic animals such as horses and sheep to keep track of the animals, but perhaps also for apotropaic purposes.
Usage examples of "tintinnabulum".
Bellis could not understand how Shekel knew so much about Tintinnabulum until he grinned and continued.
Angevine was motioning at Shekel surreptitiously as she and Tintinnabulum moved slowly toward the door.
Bellis watched Shekel teaching himself to read, rifling through the sheets on which he had written difficult words, scribbling additions to them as he said their sounds, copying words from the papers around him, from files, from the list of names that Tintinnabulum had left her.
He asked me what it was, whether it was what Tintinnabulum was looking for.
For some days, Tintinnabulum had been conscious of a change in his servant, a difference in the clattering of her engines.
The riding had opened itself, let Tintinnabulum enter and embed himself in the very heart of the city, which had resealed behind him.
In the years she had worked for him, Tintinnabulum and his crew of seven had lent their expertise to Garwater.
As on that very first day, they were flanked by Tintinnabulum and Uther Doul.
When she entered, there were others already awake and watching: several of the crewmen, Tintinnabulum and his companions, and Uther Doul.
They waited, silent: the Lover, Doul, Tintinnabulum, Hedrigall, and Bellis.
He had waited for most of a day as the Lover and Tintinnabulum and Bellis Coldwine and the others conversed with the silent anophelii men.
The Armadan crew were left to thirst and sweat for hours as the Lover and Tintinnabulum made plans.
The Lover and Tintinnabulum sat in on all sessions, beside Bellis Coldwine.
She focused on voices as if they were music: the measured sonority of Tintinnabulum, the staccato excitement of Faber, the seesawing oboe tones of the bio-philosopher whose name Bellis could never remember.
She felt a constant low-level unease at spending her days in the presence of the Garwater authorities: the Lovers, Tintinnabulum and his crew, Uther Doul.