Naker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large drum with a bowl-shaped body, of the kind formerly played in pairs by medieval and early modern musicians
2. An archaic word for a kettledrum, a percussion instrument made of a copper bowl covered with stretched hide
3. A historical type of kettledrum, struck with sticks and used in military and ceremonial music in earlier centuries

Etymology: "Naker" names a kettledrum, the bowl-shaped drum once sounded in medieval and early modern armies and orchestras. The word arrived in English from Old French "nacaire", which itself came from the same source as Italian "nacchera" and medieval Latin "nacara". All of these trace back to Arabic "naqqāra", meaning "drum", a word built from the verb "naqara", to strike or to hollow out. The drum travelled west with the instrument, carried through Spain, Italy and France before its name settled into English. The word is a doublet of "nacre", the iridescent mother-of-pearl lining of shells. The two entered English along separate routes from the same Old French stem, so one describes a musical instrument and the other a shell's sheen. Their shared ancestry is easy to miss, since one sounds like a drum and the other like a jewel.