tantara, int. and n.
(ˈtæntərə, tænˈtɑːrə)
Also extended tantaˈrara, ˈtantara-ˈrara, ˈtantaraˈtara. (Cf. taratantara.)
[Echoic.]
A. int. Imitative of the sound of a flourish blown on a trumpet, or sometimes of a drum.
| c 1537 W. Gray ‘Hunt is up’ iv. in W. Chappell Popular Music I. 60 The woddes rejoyce at the mery noise Of hey tantara tee ree! 1580 H. Gifford Gilloflowers (Grosart) 60 Tantara, tantara, the trumpets sound, Which makes our hearte with joy abound. 1589 Love & Fortune C iij b, Then, tantara tara, we shall haue good play. 1590 Nashe Pasquil's Apol. i. B iv, Tantara, tantara, is he fled indeede? let me sende a Sakar after him. a 1600 Winning of Cades Chorus, in Percy Reliques (1765) II. 224 Dub a dub, dub a dub, thus strike their drums, Tantara, tantara, the Englishman comes. 1644 Z. Boyd Gard. Zion in Zion's Flowers (1855) App. 12/1 The trump of war doth still Tantara blow. 1680 Otway Caius Marius iii. ii, Tantarara go the Trumpets. 1846 A. Beckett Comic Nursery Tales 35. |
B. n. A fanfare, or flourish of trumpets; hence, any similar sound.
| 1584 Reg. Stationers' Co. 19 July (Arb.) II. 434 [License to print a ballad entitled] The saylers newe tantara. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. Law 1009 A Heav'nly Trump, a shrill Tantara blowes. 1641 Earl of Monmouth tr. Biondi's Civil Warres iii. 118 There should want instruments to outdoe the Tantaraes of the enemies contemptible Campe. 1750–51 Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) Ser. i. III. 17, I heard a tantararara at the door, and in walked my Mrs. Hamilton. 1843 Lever J. Hinton lv, Amid a cheer..and a tantarara from the trumpets. |
| attrib. 1800 Wordsworth Andrew Jones i, I wish the press-gang or the drum With its tantara sound would come And sweep him from the village! |