A tambourine is a small hand-held percussion instrument with a round frame and metal jingles. It is shaken or hit with the hand to make a bright, rattling sound.
It comes from French 'tambourin' meaning 'small drum', from 'tambour' meaning 'drum', which likely goes back to Arabic or Persian words for drum such as 'ṭanbūr'. Over time, the word narrowed to this jingly frame drum.
The tambourine is one of those instruments that shows up in wildly different cultures—from Middle Eastern dance music to church choirs to rock bands. Even a simple shake creates a cloud of tiny, overlapping sounds, which is why it cuts through noisy music so easily.
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