An archaic or variant spelling of cymbal, the percussion instrument made of metal discs that produce sound when struck together.
Alternative spelling of cymbal, from Latin cymbalum, which comes from Greek kymbalon. The word traveled through various European languages with different spelling conventions before standardizing.
Medieval scribes spelled words inconsistently, so 'cymbel' is essentially a fossil of how English used to look—it shows us that cymbal and cymbel meant the same thing but spelling hadn't been invented yet!
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