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

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

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /tiːˈbiː.ken/

Noun

tībīcen m ‎(genitive tībīcinis); third declension

1. piper, flautist

Declension

Third declension.

Derived terms

• tībīcinō

Related terms

• tībia

Descendants

• English: tibicen

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