We have discussed tintinnabulation before in the Vocabulary forum. However, my logphile friend brings up a good point. We all know that it was used by Poe in 1831, but it was also used by Dickens in "Domby and Son" in the following quote, my friend tells me:

"It was drowned in the tintinnabulation of the gong, which sounding again with great fury, there was a general move towards the dining-room; still excepting Briggs the story boy, who remained where he was, and as he was; and on its way to whom Paul presently encountered a round of bread, genteelly served on a plate and napkin, and with a silver fork lying crosswise on the top of it."

Could it have been used by Dickens first?

Quinion in World Wide Words again:

quote:

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It seems that tintinnabulation was known, however, before Poe’s poem was published [1849]. It appears in an unpublished American letter of 1845 and Charles Dickens employed it in Dombey and Sons in 1847

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Poe's poem, although published in the year of his death, 1849, was apparently written much earlier, and a date of 1831 seems to be attributed to it.

quote:

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Kalleh: We all know that it was used by Poe in 1831.
arnie: Poe's poem, although published in the year of his death, 1849, was apparently written much earlier, and a date of 1831 seems to be attributed to it.
Websters: "tintinnabulation" ... Date: 1831

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Could arnie's and kalleh's sources be inaccurate? Where does this 1831 date came from?

The records of Poe's drafts make it clear that he didn't compose this poem until 1848. Even without those records, it would hardly be credible to think that a poet, submitting a poem to the publishers in 1849, had left it languishing on on his desk for 18 years before that.

[This message was edited by wordnerd on Wed Oct 22nd, 2003 at 7:33.]

You'll have to ask Webster's about the date of 1831 I'm afraid.

Here's what the OED Online says:

tintinnabulation

A ringing of a bell or bells, bell-ringing; the sound or music so produced.

1831 POE Bells i, Keeping time..To the tintinabulation that so musically swells From the bells. 1883 READE in Harper's Mag. Jan. 259/1 All this tintinnabulation..gratified Vladimir's vanity.

Tinman