tibicen means A flute-player; a piper, flautist. It carries an Arena rating of 1470, earned across 49 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tibicen ranks #2,695 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #3,216 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #4,110 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #4,566 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
tibicen is pronounced /tɪˈbaɪsɪn/.
Why “tibicen” is a great word
TIBICEN — [Noun] A professional flute-player or piper, particularly in the religious rites, theatrical performances, and funeral processions of ancient Rome. From the Latin tībīcen ("piper, flautist"), from tībia ("shinbone, flute") + -cen, a suffix denoting a player (from canere, "to sing, play"). Unlike an aulos-player, who performed on the raucous Greek double-reed, or a fistulator, a later and generic medieval term for a piper, the tibicen is irrevocably classical, his music woven into the civic and sacred fabric of Rome itself. He is the breathy, reedy melody cutting through the smoke of a sacrifice, the frantic rhythm driving a priestly dance, and the piercing dirge leading a funeral cortege—a technician of the sacred whose notes were the formal signal to the gods.
Etymology
From the Latin tībīcen (“piper, flautist”).
noun
- A flute-player; a piper, flautist.e.g.“When the Lacedaemonians went to battle a Tibicen played soft and soothing music to temper their courage.” — 1776, Charles Burney, chapter X, in A General History of Music, volume I, published 1789, page 173:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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