sistrum
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sistrum
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin < Greek seîstron, derivative of seíein to shake ( cf. seismic)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Roman trumpet with the rattle of the sistrum, chased the Liburnian prow with a poled barge, spread her foul mosquito nets over the Tarpeian Rock, and gave judgements among Marius’ weapons and statues.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
They were accompanied by a musical instrument known as a sistrum and a collection of bronze vessels used in rituals for the worship of the goddess Isis.
From Reuters ● May 30, 2022
You can’t hear the rattling of the ancient Egyptian sistrum at the Yale University Art Gallery’s exhibition “Sights and Sounds of Ancient Ritual,” but you can glimpse aspects of its religious power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 10, 2018
Such words as "blastoderm", "sindoc," "peris," "parasang," "sarcenet," "teazel," "nullah," "cantatrice," "barracan," "sistrum," writhed and hissed in her verses.
From Time Magazine Archive
The sistrum was, properly speaking, not considered a musical instrument at all.
From Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University by Baltzell, W. J. (Winton James)
With rain beating monotonously outside, there arose the sound of bells and, from the sanctuary, the clash of cymbals and the jingle of sistra.
From Time Magazine Archive
And ever, like an obsession, there was the rattle of the sistra, as though the whole immense temple were rattling.
From The Tour A Story of Ancient Egypt by Couperus, Louis
The two objects suspended from the belt between the heads recall Hathor's sistra 153 Fig.
From The Evolution of the Dragon by Smith, G. Elliot
The music changed into a disordered and wild outburst of citharas, lutes, Armenian cymbals, Egyptian sistra, trumpets, and horns.
From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Curtin, Jeremiah
What avail me those brazen sistra of hers so often shaken by your hand?
From Roman Women by Brittain, Alfred
And at every pause was heard the sound of the sistrums, of cymbals, of tabors, of psalteries, of bagpipes, harps, and sackbuts.
From Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume by
Steps led up to the altar, and upon them were disposed young priests and priestesses with tympani and sistrums, with flutes and tabours.
From Sulamith: A Romance of Antiquity by Kuprin, A. I. (Aleksandr Ivanovich)
Aloud the sistrums ring— Osiris!—to our god Osiris sing!—
From The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan by Gilfillan, George
Like the bells of crystal on the sistrums of Isis at Dendarah Temple,' he added half-dreamily.
From The Moon Pool by Merritt, Abraham
Could you not fancy that you saw heaven open, angels holding sistrums of gold, prostrate seraphs swinging their fragrant censers, and the archangels leaning on the flaming swords with which they have vanquished the heathen?
From Massimilla Doni by Balzac, Honoré de
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
