tympany

plural tympanies

1. countableuncountableThe sound made by beating a drum.

   [T]he vvoman ſet before the Sanctuary vvith her head uncover'd, vvas adjur'd by the Prieſt to ſvvear vvhether ſhe vvas fals or no; and conſtrain'd to drink that bitter vvater vvith an undoubted curſe of rottenneſſe, and tympany to follovv, unleſſe ſhe vvere innocent.

   1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC, page 39

2. countableuncountablemedicineTympanites (distention of the abdomen).
3. countableuncountableInflation; conceit; bombast; turgidness.

   Thine's a tympany of sense.

   1682, John Dryden, Mac Flecknoe

   1 more example

   Dr. Johnson, for his triads and his antithetic balances, he taxes more than once with a plethoric and tautologic tympany of sentence

   1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine